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The U.S. is now involved in more than 130 wars or none, depending on your definition of ‘war.’ Or it is involved in one worldwide “War Against Terror,” that successive U.S. Administrations, with Congressional support, have used to justify U.S. military operations in at least 134 countries, where they are engaged in direct combat operations, conduct special covert missions, act as military advisers, or train foreign troops or militias.
The problem is that our traditional definition of “war” is outdated, and so is our imagination of what war means.
World War II was the last time Congress officially declared war. Since then, the conflicts we’ve called “wars” — from Vietnam through to the second Iraq War — have actually been congressional “authorizations of military force.”
And more recently, beginning with the War Powers Act of 1973, presidential war powers have expanded so much that, according to the Congressional Research Service, it’s no longer clear whether a president requires congressional authorization at all to engage in war.
The recent US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will likely be the last time, in the foreseeable future, that the United States wages war in the way that’s most familiar to us: a lot of combat troops on the ground in a foreign country with lots of money and support and an ostensibly achievable objective.
US troop presence in Iraq peaked at 187,900 in 2008. In Afghanistan, it peaked in 2010 at 100,000.
On paper, it looked like the United States was fighting two wars. But the reality was much more complicated, and it’s only gotten more complicated. So how many wars is the US fighting right now?
Somewhere between zero and 134+.
Here’s the rationale:
Total # of wars: 0
Congress hasn’t declared war since 1942 so there is no war right now.
Okay, that makes no sense.
Look at a funding profile over time. It’s very clear.
x
From this graph, we can CLEARLY see that American spending on weapons and military are clearly indicative of America waging active wars.
To ignore that outrageous and obvious “tell tale” is to act the fool.
Total # of wars: 6
This maybe sounds more reasonable.
Consider the definition of war put forth by Linda Bilmes (Harvard Kennedy School) and Michael Intriligator (UCLA), who defined war in a 2013 paper as “conflicts where the US is launching extensive military incursions, including drone attacks, but that are not officially ‘declared.’”
By that definition, the United States is at war in six places right now:
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Somalia
Yemen
Ukraine
Total # of wars: 8
If you include nations that have American military, American military uniforms, weapons and systems, and is led with / by American generals. This then, adds two additional nations to the list above.
South Korea
Taiwan
Total # of wars: 134+
Whoa! Surprising, right?
In 2013, the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) — one of the nine organizational units that make up the Unified Combatant Command — had special operations forces (SOFs) in 134 countries.
The American military were either involved in combat, special missions, or advising and training foreign forces.
Since most of what SOFs do is classified, all we know about them is what we get told about them. Here’s what we’re told by the Joint Chiefs of Staff: What are SOFs?
“Special operations forces (SOF) are small, specially organized units manned by people carefully selected and trained to operate under physically demanding and psychologically stressful conditions to accomplish missions using modified equipment and unconventional applications of tactics against strategic and operational objectives.
The unique capabilities of SOF complement those of conventional forces.”
And what do they do?
“Joint special operations (SO) are conducted by SOF from more than one Service in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, informational, and/or economic objectives employing military capabilities for which there is no broad conventional force requirement.
These operations may require low visibility, clandestine, or covert capabilities.
SO are applicable across the range of military operations.
They can be conducted independently or in conjunction with operations of conventional forces or other government agencies and may include operations through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces.
SO differ from conventional operations in degree of physical and political risk, operational techniques, use of special equipment, modes of employment, independence from friendly support, and dependence on detailed operational intelligence and indigenous assets.”
Examples: These tasks include;
special reconnaissance (SR),
direct action (DA),
unconventional warfare (UW),
foreign internal defense (FID),
counterterrorism, counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
SOCOM admited to having forces on the ground in 134 countries around the world (in 2014).
That doesn’t mean its forces are carrying out capture or kill raids in every country, but it’s almost impossible to know where and when different operations are taking place.
That’s especially true when it comes to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), an operational command within SOCOM that operates with an enormous amount of autonomy and secrecy — and, some would say, little accountability.
Founded after the failed mission to rescue American hostages in Tehran in 1980 and designed to handle similarly complex operations in the future, JSOC was a classified and little used command on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since then, it’s more than tripled in size, received an ever-increasing share of funding, and has conducted operations in dozens of countries.
(Journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote in depth about JSOC in his 2013 book, “Dirty Wars.” That’s where the following information comes from.)
JSOC was introduced to the world on May 1, 2011, when Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a nighttime raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The raid was a collaboration between the CIA and an agency almost nobody had heard of: JSOC. “We’re the dark matter,” a Navy SEAL told the Washington Post of JSOC in 2011. “We’re the force that orders the universe but can’t be seen.”
We know more about JSOC now, thanks to investigative reporters like Scahill and Mark Mazzetti. JSOC’s core is made up of three acknowledged “Special Missions Units” (SMUs).
You know these folks from TV and movies:
Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment (Delta Force),
the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVRGU or “Seal Team Six”),
the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron.
In addition to the SMUs, JSOC has its own intelligence division, the Intelligence Support Activity, and often oversees the 75th Ranger Regiment, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (the “Night Stalkers”), and other special operations forces. JSOC, along with the Special Activities Division at the CIA, have been the leading edge of counterterrorism.
Journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin found that JSOC has carried out counterterrorism operations in…
Iraq,
Afghanistan,
Algeria,
Iran,
Malaysia,
Mali,
Nigeria,
Pakistan,
the Philippines,
Somalia,
Syria,
Ukraine,
Taiwan,
Yemen.
An anonymous source with close ties to JSOC gave Scahill an even more expansive list that included those countries along with Indonesia, Thailand, Colombia, Peru, and several countries in Eastern and Central Asia.
“The world is a battlefield and we are at war,”
The source told Scahill of the logic that drives JSOC.
“Therefore the military can go wherever they please and do whatever it is that they want to do, in order to achieve the national security objectives of whichever administration happens to be in power.”
Add such nations of Iran, Bolivia, Kenya and more to the list and it seems really hard to keep track of all the killing, and wars that the United States is involved in.
Total # of wars: 1
“The world is a battlefield” isn’t just a vague, hawkish worldview — it’s a legal understanding of military force in the age of a single, global war: the War on Terror.
The world is a battlefield thanks in large part to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which Congress passed on Sept. 14, 2001 and which gives the President of the United States broad power to fight terrorism around the world.
It reads in part:
“The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determined planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2011, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”
A video that discusses what is next
Yuppur. The USA has Taiwan in it’s sights. Please check out this “must see” video…
Conclusion
So how many wars would you say the United States is now fighting?
Jesus. American Senators are actively discussing United States military fighting one-on-one against the Russians in the Ukraine. I swear. The United States is ruled by fools, ignorant lunatics, and psychopathic evil demons. It is. Seriously. I do not know which rock these people crawled out of, but they have no fucking idea what they are dealing with.
War with Russia is not going to be anything like the US Senate assumes it will be like.
And I have to tell you all, after watching the video that I am presenting below, if you are not getting sweat on your brow then something is wrong with you.
This is a very, very dangerous situation that the United States is playing around with. They are NOT taking it seriously.
They are not listening.
The are ignoring every single warning sign.
2022 03 18 09 19
No one in the United States media; it’s leadership, and it’s public is taking Russia and China seriously.
I am talking about stable, thoughtful and reasonable discussions designed to reduce tensions, and create mutually agreeable solutions for everyone involved.
That is not happening.
Asia has no problem with reducing the United States into a glowing ember.
And anyone, anyone at all who cannot see the dangerous folly in this, deserves to suffer the fate that they are creating.
Here we are going to use history to predict what will come next in the world of Geo-politics.
Washington needs to be on the front-lines. Not Ukraine.
And, if we use historical trends, then that is exactly what will happen.
2022 03 17 23 t44
We begin with this to set the pace.
Tucker seems to be the only voice of reason amongst a lot of warmongers. If the US start fighting Russian aircraft over Ukraine this act will mean WWIII, the next devastating war in Europe but this time with nuclear weapons. Tucker is the only one who sees this imminent danger and dares to speak out against it. I really do hope he will continue to do so.
-Joe Fairdin
Please watch this video. It is critical that you watch this short video because this entire article is a reaction to this particular video.
It’s horrific.
Tucker Carlson reports that the United States Senate is completely willing to go to war against Russia. And all the neocon senators (Republican and Democrat) believe that it will be [1] conventional, and [2] limited to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a televised address today, and basically spoke to the world regarding the events taking place in Ukraine and the economic fallout being blamed on it.
Putin said Moscow offered the Ukrainian authorities not to engage in hostilities, if they withdrew troops from the Donbass, but they did not want to.
He went on to say the special military operation is going well and according to plan.
Here is a machine translation from Boris Rozhin (aka Colonel Cassad): (only partial extracts from the full transcript, slight English editing by MM.)
The operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine is developing successfully, strictly in accordance with plans.The tactics of the Russian Defense Ministry in Ukraine have fully justified themselves, everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties.
Before the operation began, Moscow offered Kiev to withdraw troops from Donbass, but they refused.
All the tasks necessary will certainly be solved.If Russian troops had stopped at the borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, this would not have been the final solution, it would not have removed the threat to Russia.Russia is not going to occupy Ukraine.There was no necessitated need to storm the major cities.The strike on Donetsk on March 14 is a bloody terrorist attack.Russia will not allow Ukraine to remain a springboard for anti-Russian actions.The whole planet has to pay for the ambitions of the West, the myth of the “golden billion” is collapsing.
The “golden billion” is Russian slang. золотой миллиард. It means the relatively wealthy people found in the Western nations. It refers to the “middle class” that live in nice homes, drive nice cars, and are affluent.
The West is trying to convince its citizens that their difficulties are the result of Russia’s actions, but this is a lie.Sanctions against the Russian Federation are hitting the Europeans and Americans themselves, “it is not necessary to shift from a sick head to a healthy one.”
The Russian President pointed out that Western patrons are pushing Kyiv to continue the bloodshed, by supplying weapons, intelligence, and sending mercenaries.
Не стоит переходить от больной головы к здоровой is an idiom that translates to “it is not necessary to shift from a sick head to a healthy one.”
Many people have the bad habit of blaming others for their own faults. As a result, they do not know how to accept their own mistakes and are accustomed to blaming others for their troubles. The Russian idiom “to fall from a sick head to a healthy one.” refers to this behavioral aberration.
The US and the EU actually defaulted on their obligations to Russia, freezing its reserves – now everyone knows that the state’s reserves can simply be stolen.Russia – unlike Western countries – will respect the right of ownership.Arrests of foreign assets of the Russian Federation and business – a lesson for Russian entrepreneurs, there is nothing more reliable than investments at homeWe now know who cowardly betrayed their partners and failed to fulfill their obligations to employees.Trying to “cancel” Russia, the West has torn off all the masks of decency.I am sure that after blocking the accounts of the Russian Federation in the West, many countries will convert their reserves into goods, which will increase the deficit.It is obvious that the current events draw a line under the global dominance of Western countries, both in politics and in the economy.Moreover, they themselves question the economic model that has been imposed on developing countries in recent decades. Yes, in general, the whole world.
The actions of the United States are being viewed by the rest of the world. That in turn will influence their decisions on using the USD, adopting American “protections” and placing their systems under the umbrella of the United States government.
I emphasize that the sanctions obsession of the United States and its supporters is not shared by countries where more than half of the world’s population lives. It is these states that represent the fastest growing, most promising part of the global economy, including Russia.The “empire of lies” of the West is powerless against truth and justice, Russia will continue to bring its position to the whole worldThe West relies on the fifth column, national traitors, such mentally are there, in the West, and not in Russia. The West is trying to split our society, speculating on combat losses, on the consequences of sanctions. The people will be able to distinguish patriots from scum and traitors and just spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew in. The natural self-purification of society will strengthen our country.
Most interestingly, Putin pointed out a network of a dozen laboratories operated in Ukraine, where military biological programs were carried out with the financial support of the United States Military.
These included experiments with samples of coronavirus, anthrax, cholera, African swine fever. He went on to say authorities in Ukraine are now strenuously trying to cover up traces of these programs.
Speaking to the world, he said
"I want ordinary citizens of Western states to hear me too.
They are now trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia; That from your wallet you need to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat.
It's all a lie!
And the truth is that the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of years of actions by the ruling elites in the West.
Their mistakes, myopia and ambitions.
These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens, they are obsessed with their selfish interests and super profits."
Putin also spoke about his future plans for Ukraine, saying
"The appearance of Russian troops near Kiev and other Ukrainian cities is not connected with a desire to occupy Ukraine, Russia has no such goal.All tasks assigned in the special military operation will certainly be completed;
We had no other option to ensure the security of Russia."
He laid out what is going on and why. He identified who started the war and why. He elaborated on the extent of Russian involvement and narrated the need for the West to stop now before things get bad.
In short. Russia is ready for war.
Economic. Military. Social. Financial. Scientific. In every way.
I would just add “better late than never”!
Now, let me be perfectly clear. It will NOT be limited to Ukraine. Both Putin and Xi Peng know where all the warmongering originates. They will not allow proxy wars on their borders.
Many still do not understand that we are already deeply in decay. Two groups immediately spring up once we realize we are in decay: the standard lazy-stupid human “wow it’s all doomed, no point in doing anything” response, and the “we must cling to what we still have” group. The latter sort of get it, but not fully.
If you have a garden and are sent out of town for a few months, you will return to a ruin. Overgrown with weeds, ridden with rotted plants, layered in dead leaves, and possibly now inhabited by wild animals, your garden is a working model of nature (which itself models a fully complex system fairly well, so you can draw parallels to any situation of sufficient complexity via this model).
In all situations, your approach is the same: remove parasites and unwanted plants, remove the sick, clean up the mess, and nurture the health of those plants you want.
Weeding is, if viewed properly, a tragedy. Here I am on my hands and knees, yanking out grasses, clover, dandelion, and broadleaf that I would otherwise be very happy to see on the edge of a forest where I could selectively harvest them, dandelion for tea, clover for poultice, and broadleaf for salad.
And yet, if I want the tomatoes, eggplant, onions, peppers, chives, garlic, stringbeans, cabbage, and mustard to thrive, I need to yank out these otherwise functional plants — now categorized as “weeds” — and allow the plants I need to take up the sunlight, water, space, and fertilizer that otherwise would be siphoned off by the others.
Weeds, by the way, show us economics in action. Even a five percent loss of inputs — the sunlight, water, dirt, and nutrition mentioned above — to weeds or bad plant placement can reduce a crop by half. That may not matter so much for ornamental gardens, but if you plan to feed your family with those plants, it is instantly a very big deal.
Gardens separate humanity into two groups, much as society does. On one side you have the realists, who recognize that whatever must be done to make the garden grow to the maximum should be done; this is a morality of realism, or reality first.
The other side consists of both liberals and religious conservatives. They talk about what should be done, and from that list, want to select the methods that can be used in the garden. This is classic Control: exclude any methods that are unwanted, and then by managing the methods used by others, create an external situation designed to manage human inner mental state. Instead of self-control and positive motivation, you have negative motivation (political correctness, Biblical morality, social disapproval, shareholder revolt) paired to external control, with the idea that you will have no inner structure whatsoever because you have given it all up for the mental comfort of the group.
In this way, our morality comes down to two forms. The realists figure for ends-over-means, signifying that what should be done is what is functional; the humanists look toward means-over-ends, proclaiming what should be done and then trying to shoehorn function into what is left. All humanist groups eventually become narcissistic, solipsistic, and egotistic like the Communists and, by catering to every human, provide for none, and self-destruct.
Democracy just takes a slightly slower boat especially when mediated by capitalism as it has been in America. Europe has doomed itself by neutering itself; as the Russian military struggles through Ukraine, we might all reflect that this shows us Europe before Genghis Khan’s Mongols arrived: so accustomed to our own battles that we downgraded to an efficient optimum and equilibrium, we were unprepared for anyone using other tactics, even if these were widely known. Contemporary Europe, like the Russian army, has downgraded itself to meet the threats it likely faces, all of whom are sickened by the same weeds of socialism and diversity, not the Black Swan threat it should prepare for since that will be its test of survival.
This means that democracy has reached its endgame. The weeds have won; a third of the garden is growing random plants that serve none of our purposes, and the others have accepted a life of taking less and producing less, year after year, hastening our inevitable Soviet-style decline when our system can no longer produce what we need.
The result of the USA-China meeting in Italy
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, warned Beijing it would “absolutely” face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Unnamed US “Officials” stated that “Russia asked China for military equipment after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine”. This report was catagorically denied by the Chinese government.
Personally, I can’t figure out (for the life of me) what military weapons that China could possibly provide Russia. Only the ignorant would believe that Russia and China use the same weapons.
But a lie, is a lie, is a lie. And since it is coming out of Washington DC, you can expect it to be a BIG lie.
Jake Sullivan (according to the United States “news” media), started mapping out the consequences and growing isolation China would face globally if it maintains its support of Russia.
Jake Sullivan
Or so the media narrative went.
The purpose, supposedly, for the meeting is that the United States was to warn China not to support, help, or trade with Russia. If it does, then bad things will result.
“Bad things”.
After the meeting, the United States media hardly said a peep about what transpired. All it said is that the meeting lasted seven hours. Nothing else.
The Chinese media, however, was very clear.
China said no.
Then no again.
Then again, no, and then No, get out of my face.
Followed by no, and know who the fuck you are dealing with.
The USA failed, and China would not be intimated. Here’s the best summary that I could find on the Internet. You-Tube. Great video.
2022 03 17 11 39
Curious Coincidence
Immediately after the failed USA-China negotiations in Italy, China was hit with a very lethal strain of Coronavirus.
Shenzhen is under full and absolute lockdown.Same with a number of other cities including Shanghai, Danguang, and Wenzhou.
No one is moving. HK has hospitals overflowing, and the entire nation is swabbing the population multiple times. I myself, have already had three swabs in the last 48 hours.
It’s a good thing that China is still at DEFCON 2.
Major coronavirus outbreaks in multiple locations at ports and entry cities. All coordinated at the same time, all after failed negotiations with the United States. What a coincidence.
Imagine that!
Chinese aide to Russia
Here’s a comparison between facts, and the resulting distortions.
Note:
To China, the relations between China and Russia is absolute and necessary.
Where Russia is like the teeth. And China is like the lip.
If the lip is damaged, the teeth will be exposed to the harsh world without protection.
Thus, the wellbeing of Russia is a life and death issue for China.
I am in no doubt that China will stand side by side with Russia in the 21st century facing off against the dying United States military empire.
9 x propaganda :
What China Can and Cannot Do for Russia Amid Sanctions
Spokesperson for Chinese mission to the EU answers a question about NATO leader’s remarks about China
Question:
According to reports, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that any Russian support, military support or any other support, will actually help Russia wage a brutal war.
A war against an independent sovereign state, Ukraine, and help them continue to wage a war that brings death, suffering and great destruction.
He also stated that China, as a member of the UN Security Council, has an obligation to actually uphold and abide by international law and join the rest of the world in condemning the Russian invasion.
What is your comment?
Answer:
We have taken note of the relevant comments.
The Chinese can fully understand the pain and suffering of other countries because we will never forget who blew up our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
We don't need lectures on justice from a violator of international law.
As a remnant of the Cold War and the world's largest military alliance, NATO continues to expand its geography and range of operations.
What role has it played in bringing peace and stability to the world?
NATO needs to think carefully.
Deleted Web Page Shows Obama Plan to Build BioLab for ‘Especially Dangerous Pathogens’ in Ukraine
Former President Barack Obama was a part of an agreement that allowed for the construction of Biolabs in Ukraine that handle “especially dangerous pathogens.”
The discovery was made after a deleted web page was discovered by The National Pulse.
This discovery comes on the same day that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the US Senate that the Biden Administration was worried about potential bioweapon research facilities being taken by Russian troops as the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate following Russia’s invasion.
The article, titled “Biolab Opens in Ukraine” goes into how Obama helped negotiate the construction of a level-3 biosafety lab in Odessa, a city that has already seen conflict. Obama did so during his time serving as an Illinois Senator.
The article reads:
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar applauded the opening of the Interim Central Reference Laboratory in Odesa, Ukraine, this week, announcing that it will be instrumental in researching dangerous pathogens used by bioterrorists.The level-3 bio-safety lab, which is the first built under the expanded authority of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, will be used to study anthrax, tularemia and Q fever as well as other dangerous pathogens. “The continuing cooperation of Nunn-Lugar partners has improved safety for all people against weapons of mass destruction and potential terrorist use, in addition to advancements in the prevention of pandemics and public health consequences,” Lugar said.Lugar said plans for the facility began in 2005 when he and then-Senator Barack Obama entered a partnership with Ukrainian officials. Lugar and Obama also helped coordinate efforts between the U.S and Ukrainian researchers that year in an effort to study and help prevent avian flu.The Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, was established in 1991. Since that time it has provided funding and assistance to help the former Soviet Union dismantle and safeguard large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The program has also been responsible for destroying chemical weapons in Albania, Lugar said.
Another document by the BioWeapons Prevention Project breaks down in detail which pathogens are in the bio lab. Ebola and other “viruses of pathogenicity group II by using of virology, molecular, serological and express methods” are listed.
Victoria Nuland
[1] Responsible for the bioweapons in the Ukraine. [2] Admitted that they are in the Ukraine. [3] Agrees that the Ukraine is a war zone, but any problems with them are Russias fault.
Weak-wristed loser pointing fingers at others for her very own actions.
Victoria Nuland.
The Burning Platform on the madness that has gripped the United States
When Machiavelli wrote The Prince he had Vladimir Putin in mind. The president of Russia has adroitly sought, maintained, and used power, the theme of Machiavelli’s masterpiece (see “The Black Belt Strategist,” Robert Gore. SLL, July 19, 2018). That he is an amoral snake is both true and laughable as a criticism coming from the amoral snakes who populate Western power structures. Nobody who slithers to the top of those pits is anything other than an amoral snake. Western snakes hate Putin because he’s repeatedly outsnaked them.
Call Putin a rattlesnake for he clearly rattled before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That he was ignored is a worrisome indication of the epistemological breakdown that grips the West.
Its leaders are unable to grasp that Putin meant what he said.
That is because those in the West rarely mean what they say.
Facts are not facts and the truth is whatever narrative they’re promoting at the moment. It’s become axiomatic that power flows from control of the narrative.
Until it doesn’t.
Power flows from understanding reality and making use of what it can offer.
If narratives were power, Ukraine’s army would be in Moscow by now.
We haven’t seen this kind of excessive excrement from governments and their media minions since . . . Covid. Narratives are for simple-minded sheep and the wolves who devour them.
The propaganda is devoid of any mention of:
The 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup against a democratically elected government;
rampant corruption within the Ukrainian oligarchy;
Ukranian payola to American political figures (e.g., the Bidens and Clintons);
widespread neo-Nazi infestation of Ukraine’s military and government;
their eight-year war on its Russian-heritage citizens in eastern Ukraine;
the government’s willful failure to adhere to the Minsk accords that were meant to resolve that conflict, or the latest—
U.S. built, funded, and staffed, bioresearch labs in Ukraine.
Simply trying to find accurate information about the military situation in Ukraine is virtually impossible amidst the propaganda onslaught and the censoring or shutting down of Russian information sources.
Previous wars have featured regular press updates and maps that detailed the situation on the ground, that is, reality.
Not this one.
No matter how loathsome the opponents, it’s always a good idea to know what they’re doing and saying, even when its demonstrably untrue.
During the first Cold War the West had armies of analysts studying every scrap of information that came from the Soviet Union.
Now Western leaders and most of the populace are flying blind.
They’re children sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming over anyone saying anything they don’t want to hear.
It’s yet another sign of epistemological breakdown and reflects a terrifying feedback loop. Mental chaos leads to chaos in reality, which leads to more mental chaos and so on.
Trying to explain the Russian position on Ukraine, even when the explanation is festooned with disclaimers that it’s not a justification of the invasion or Putin, is as useless as trying to explain the dangers of Covid vaccines. This is true, even by doctors and scientists who have promoted vaccines their entire careers and who have had the Covid vaccines themselves. The children have their masks jabs, and boosters, they’re waving the blue and gold. You’re antivax, pro-Putin, and must be canceled immediately—that’s it, end of story.
This childishness can only lead to disaster.
Which has arrived on multiple fronts.
Russia is a net exporter of grain, minerals, metals, oil, and natural gas. The U.S. and non-Russia Europe are net exporters of debt.
The former are exchanged for the latter via the SWIFT inter-bank messaging network, fiat currency and debt’s global circulatory system.
Some Russian banks’ access has been cut off, stopping the flow of debt and the counter flow of Russian exports. Although payments for gas and oil exports have been exempted, Russian oil and gas still trades at a steep discount on fears the exemption will be lifted if the war gets worse.
The exemption reflects Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.
However, Germany canceled approval for the completed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia.
The energy situation in Europe was already strained, with natural gas trading at a large premium to the rest of the world.
Renewable energy is meant to replace fossil fuels and nuclear, but solar and wind are intermittent. The stopgap is coal, ironically the dirtiest fuel.
European energy’s shortages and high price hurt the competitiveness of its industries, particularly Germany’s. Stopping Nord Stream 2 exacerbates the problem.
Biden administration energy policies have shifted towards the same delusory green agenda, making the U.S. an importer again after it had achieved energy self-sufficiency during the Trump years.
Although it’s not a huge percentage of total energy used, the U.S. has been importing Russian oil, gas, and coal, giving Russia additional wherewithal to make war on Ukraine.
Recognizing that awkward fact, the administration banned those imports by executive decree (now the favored form of rule), which will put more pressure on prices from non-Russian energy sources.
Ascending gas prices are not helping the administration politically, notwithstanding its blatant lies that they are due solely to Russia’s invasion. (Prices had almost doubled prior to the invasion.)
The U.S. and Europe’s energy miscues are matched by their financial folly, which amount to children holding their breath until they suffocate and die.
Stopping Russia’s exports via the SWIFT cutoff is severe.
The price of nickel, a big Russian export, recently jumped 250 percent in one day.
Tsingshan Holding Group, a Chinese stainless steel giant whose largest creditor is J.P. Morgan Chase, has a huge short position in nickel. The London Metals Exchange, caught between its own Chinese owners, Tsingshan, and one of the world’s systemically important banks, shut itself down and is trying to undo some trades.
A tentative settlement has been reached, but this kind of mess can reverberate quickly throughout the world’s financial daisy chain, sparking globalized financial meltdown. It certainly doesn’t increase faith in financial clearinghouses.
That’s not the worst of it.
Curtailed access to SWIFT hinders Russian companies’ ability to service their debts.
As with most of the sanctions regime, this hurts Europe the most.
Several of its banks have large exposures to Russia debt, and its banking system was dangerously over-leveraged pre-Ukraine war, much more so than the U.S.’s. Bank insolvencies in Europe could also reverberate across the planet, as mortgage and mortgage-security insolvencies did in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
Even that’s not the worst of it.
The U.S. and Europe crossed a monumentally important red line when they froze the Russian central bank’s foreign exchange reserves.
The U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status has given the U.S. what’s been called an exorbitant privilege—the world sends it goods in exchange for its fiat currency, of which it can produce unlimited amounts.
Freezing the Russian central bank’s dollar reserves tells the world the reserve currency is no longer a safe haven.
The move is not entirely unprecedented—the U.S. has frozen the Afghanistan and Venezuelan central banks’ reserves—but freezing the reserves of a nuclear power is an order of magnitude greater breach of global financial arrangements and contracts.
Joining Canadian dollar deposits, some of which Justin Trudeau recently froze, U.S. dollar deposits can now be frozen and potentially expropriated on a political whim.
Of course dollars have been stealth-expropriated on political whim via monetary inflation since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, but this crystalizes the threat that nations who don’t toe the U.S. line will have their dollar reserves stolen.
Russia and China have been reducing their dollar holdings—which they often invested in U.S. Treasury debt—for years, switching to euros, yuan, yen, and gold.
They’ve also created alternatives to SWIFT.
Now that the U.S. government has demonstrated that holding dollar deposits is like caching stores of food in a wolves’ den, this move is sure to accelerate until their dollar holdings are the bare minimum required for international trade.
The Russians have a financial nuclear option.
As exporters of oil, gas, crucial raw materials and industrial goods, they can demand payment in gold rather than in the fiat currencies the U.S. and Europe have now rendered worthless to them.
The reserve currency will no longer be a fake money whose value is only maintained by political promises not to produce too much of it.
Gold—real money (see “Real Money,” Robert Gore, SLL, September 9, 2015)—will be restored to the place it has held for centuries as countless government-issued fiat currencies went to their ultimate value: zero.
The current crop of fiat currencies is headed to the same destination, but the Russian nuclear option would bring down the curtain on them once and for all.
Russia and China are both large producers of gold and both their governments have been stockpiling it for years.
The U.S. government reportedly owns 8,000 tons of gold (Russia has a known 2,000 tons and Macleod estimates the Chinese government has 20,000 tons), but those holdings have never been audited and calls to do so have been fiercely resisted. Unknown as well is how much of the U.S. government’s physical gold has been collateralized, leased, or is otherwise tied into derivatives in the paper gold market. Tellingly, the U.S. has discouraged other countries for whom it acts as custodian of their gold reserves from withdrawing them.
War is the ultimate chaos and the Ukraine-Russia war has sparked another upside breakout.
To say [1] that the military situation favors Russia, or that [2] the sanctions against it will end up hurting the U.S. and Europe more than Russia, or that [3] Russia can bring down the global financial system is only to say that one way or another the situation adds to the chaos.
Assuming Russia eventually achieves its military objectives in Ukraine, the U.S. will undoubtedly foment an insurgency by feeding weapons and the usual unacknowledged mix of intelligence spooks, covert military advisors, and private mercenaries into an Ukrainian resistance.
The goal is a long-running and enervating guerrilla war that drains Putin’s support and leads to his ouster.
Cheap Stinger missiles will take out expensive Russian aircraft and cheap Javelin missiles will take out expensive Russian tanks.
The template is the successful mujahideen-led and U.S.-aided war against the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1989 in Afghanistan, often credited with helping bring down the Soviet government two years after its military withdrawal.
Syria may end up as the actual template, an effort by U.S.-aided jihadist groups to regime change that nation’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, which failed after Russia came to Syria’s defense.
Even were that the case, if Putin thinks he can invade Ukraine, impose his objectives, and then withdraw with the country pacified and compliant, he’s as deluded as American schemers have been with all their surgical strikes, covert operations, limited wars, and regime changes since World War II.
Insurgencies are always messy regardless of who “wins.” Ukraine has become another theater for the uncontrollable chaos engulfing the world.
It's a good thing then, that Russia has no plans to stay in the Ukraine. -MM
It’s not hard to imagine what forms further amplification of that chaos might take. Modern agriculture is dependent on energy and fertilizers are made from minerals of which Ukraine and Russia are significant suppliers. Both countries also export grains.
Skyrocketing food prices and famine in some areas loom, and food riots and other forms of civil unrest are sure to follow.
There is no limit to the pandemonium either centralized actors—governments and globalist institutions—or decentralized actors can wreak.
Infrastructure is never completely protected. Electrical grids can be short-circuited, water supplies poisoned, transport and logistics disrupted or destroyed, and the internet sabotaged.
Controlling chaos requires energy, resources, and production. While there is no way to determine the mathematical relationship between chaos and control (remember Get Smart?), that it is direct and exponential seems a reasonable hypothesis. Herein lies the contradiction at the heart of the globalist design.
They are fomenting ever-increasing chaos while destroying the energy, resources, and production necessary to control it.
Alexander Putin
Not a happy man. Making hard and difficult decisions while being harrased by a lunitic, out of control, evil psychopathic United States “leadership” cabal. I know what he’s thinking.
Do you?
Alexander Putin
You May Want To Figure Out Where You Want To Spend Your Days When World War 3 Fully Erupts
The growing desire for war that we are witnessing in Washington D.C. right now should greatly alarm all of us.
In this environment, voices of reason such as Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard are being accused of “treason” just because they are calling for peace. Well, you can add me to that list because I am calling for peace too.
I don’t want nuclear war.
I don’t want billions of people to die.
You would think that we should all be able to agree on those things, but unfortunately the warmongers in Washington seem absolutely determined to keep escalating matters.
That is a very dangerous game, and it is going to be way too easy for someone to make a huge mistake.
Before that day arrives, you may want to figure out where you want to spend your days when global war fully erupts.
At some point, the shooting in Ukraine will end.
Either Russia will achieve total victory, or more likely there will be some sort of a ceasefire agreement.
But when the shooting in Ukraine stops, don’t be fooled into thinking that everything is okay. The truth is that a much bigger conflict between the United States and Russia has now begun, and both sides are beginning to realize that this is ultimately a struggle for all the marbles.
World War 3 is here, and now we must hope that we can keep both parties from “going nuclear” for as long as possible.
Of course there are some that would like to see the U.S. and Russia shooting at each other very soon. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begged Congress to establish a “humanitarian no-fly zone” over Ukraine…
The t-shirt-attired Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress by video on Wednesday and asked for the United States to send warplanes into the sky over Ukraine to create a “humanitarian no-fly zone” or, failing that, to provide Ukraine itself with warplanes.“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky told Congress.
Zelensky knows very well that the establishment of a “humanitarian no-fly zone” would require U.S. forces to shoot down Russian jets.
And he also understands that this would spark a shooting war between the United States and Russia.
But you can’t blame Zelensky for trying.
He is trying to save his own skin, and the best way to do that is to drag the United States into the war.
Needless to say, the establishment media in the western world absolutely adored Zelensky’s speech. The following example comes from CNN…
Zelensky’s words are not only destined for the history books. They will likely energize support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine and reverberate across the US.When America’s top Democrats and Republicans rose side by side to give Zelensky a standing ovation, we knew the Ukrainian President had made his mark. Zelensky, reminding Americans what freedom really means after the country has spent years devaluing it in petty political battles, proves there is a new seriousness in the nation.
And most members of Congress ate it up as well. Following the speech, Senator Jeanne Shaheen boldly declared that “more must be done to assist Ukraine”…
“It is clear that more must be done to assist Ukraine and hold Putin to account,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, said in a statement following Zelenskeyy’s virtual address. “The images we watched today underscore the horrific violence – the war crimes – being committed by Putin. He will pay for what he has done.”
And Senator Joni Ernst said that Zelensky’s speech made her want to put on a uniform and “go help”…
‘It’s hurtful to see anything like, you know, thinking about if it were my child, if that were my family, that were my people. You know, I’d be doing the exact same thing that President Zelensky is,’ Ernst said.‘I would be appealing to every nation possible to get whatever it takes to defeat the Russians and get them the heck out of my country. You know, it makes me want to throw on my uniform, you know, and go help.’
Actually, I would love to see that.
In fact, I would love to see U.S., Ukrainian and Russian politicians all flown to an island where they would resolve this conflict “Battle Royale” style.
But instead, all of the politicians are safe and warm while millions upon millions of Ukrainians deeply suffer.
One of the biggest warmongers in the U.S. Senate, Lindsey Graham, has decided that it is time to start calling Vladimir Putin “a war criminal”…
“It’s time for him to go. He’s a war criminal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an erstwhile standard bearer for the Republican Party’s Reagan-era foreign policies, told reporters shortly after Zelenskeyy’s address. “I am asking the Russian people to rise up and end his rein of terror.”
Joe Biden also referred to Putin as a “war criminal” on Wednesday, and he announced that an additional 800 million dollars in military aid would be given to the Ukrainian government.
Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds
25,000 sets of body armor
25,000 helmets
But of course this is not nearly enough for some of the warmongers in Congress.
In fact, 40 Republican senators just signed a letter “in which they strongly disagreed with the decision to not transfer aircraft and air defense systems to Ukraine from Poland”.
Biden was hesitant to take such a step because it might start a shooting war with Russia, but apparently that is a risk that most Republican senators are willing to take.
Thankfully, most Americans do not actually want a shooting war with Russia.
But according to one new survey, more than a third of all Americans “would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia”…
However, most Americans (62%) say they would oppose the U.S. “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.” About a third (35%) of Americans say they would favor military action in this scenario. Comparable shares in both parties (36% of Republicans, 35% of Democrats) say they would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia.
Those of us in the majority need to be much louder than those in the minority, because if the warmongers get their way we could eventually find ourselves in the middle of a nuclear conflict.
And if that happens, there won’t be a future for our country.
The Pentagon is to deploy over two thousand troops to Australia by September to join an established rotational force of 200 in anticipation of a conflict with China, according to reports.The Daily Mail notes that “The contingent is part of an ongoing US initiative in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in coming years.”The report notes that 1000 marines have already arrived in the country.
If Americans truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive demonstrations in the streets of every major U.S. city right now.
But the general population just doesn’t get it.
They just assume that war is something that happens on the other side of the globe and that our leaders have everything under control.
Unfortunately, our leaders most definitely do not have everything under control, and when World War 3 fully erupts the death and destruction that we will witness will be absolutely unimaginable.
Timing
Let’s talk a little about the timing for disaster.
The following is taken from a post that I wrote three years ago. I reprinted a section of it here, and made some minor alterations.
For just about everything that I predicted has come to pass, or are developing in such an obvious way that I look like a real accurate fortune-teller.
If I made any mistakes (so far) is that my predictions were one to two years late. Or, in other words I was too optimistic. Which points to a rot, and decay far deeper than which I was aware of.
Historical records clearly point out the the United States will go through a severe and harsh change in society. This has been building up for some time. The worst and most catastrophic elements of that change has already been set in motion. Anything that will occur will occur during the ten-year span from 2020 though 2030.
The worst time should be 2023 through 2024.
With 2025 being a “harsh reality“.
By 2026, my guess is that the kenetic phase might be over, but people will still be dealing with turmoil at various levels.
Serious upheaval in America will occur from 2020 though to 2030. This is a ten year period of time. It is now the first quarter of 2022. My previous predictions were on track. I was in slight error when I predicted that the events would transpire one year later than they are now transpiring.
I predicted a major military event in 2023. It seems that it occurred in 2022 with the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the United States Senate driving a war-machine full-throttle.
Points and information
I’m going to lay out some points and some information. I’ve covered the background elsewhere in great detail. However, here we are just going to throw it all out for purposes of review.
Generational Turnings are a historically accurate methodology for predictive behaviors.
America; the United States, will go through the following in the next ten years;
Domestic unrest resulting in American death(s).
A complete change in the Federal Government.
The value of the USD will collapse.
A very serious “Hot War” on American soil.
Cultural, and societal collapse.
Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.
Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.
The normalcy bias causes many people to not adequately prepare for natural disasters, pandemics, and calamities caused by human error.
About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.
-Wikipedia
Let’s go one by one on these points.
[1] Domestic unrest resulting in death(s).
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with domestic unrest. Not only that but people die. Yes. There is an entire sub-culture of Americans that believe that domestic unrest will occur. All you need to do is google SHTF and “prepper”. And you know that many Americans expect this. Gun stores are empty of guns and ammo.
Everyone is expecting societal unrest. And they plan on defending themselves and their family. In fact, for the last three months the top MM posts are those devoted to the SHTF Index.
And sure… nothing is guaranteed. This fear might just be a passing fad. Or the absolute result of American media going “off the rails”. Or some kind of mass psychosis due to being locked inside all 2020. It could be anything.
I am of the opinion …
Most Americans are unhappy.
Most Americans are locked inside of a class structure with little upward movement.
There are terrible and systematic problems regarding American society.
Government “solutions” are insufficient, meager and viewed as an insult.
There are groups who desire to capitalize on domestic discord to promote their own agendas.
There are elements inside of the Federal Government that have the power and plans to come down aggressively to any disruption of society.
None of the above should come as any surprise to most Americans. And thus I conclude…
There is a higher than average chance that there will be domestic revolt / upset. This is not a continuation of BLM, Antifa “riots”, or a Trump Supporter “frat party” style takeover of Congress.
This will be something far more serious, sinister and deadly. It will not be reported, or if it is, it will be reported in such a way as to minimize what is actually going on.
Historically, these kinds of events are preceded by the government trying to take preemptive actions. That could be [1] “false flag” events, [2] a banning of weapons or one or more Rights / freedoms, and [3] a call to fight some kind of “enemy” or “threat”.
If any of the above occurs to any serious degree, you can well expect domestic discord to follow promptly.
Historically, all Democrat Presidents have had a major "Gun-related mass-killing event" within the first nine months of their Presidency. That includes Trump who was supposed to lose to Hillary Clinton.
[2] A complete change in the Federal Government.
The United States government WILL change. And, it will not be voluntary.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with a serious and large change in the Government.
The current American government is an enormous behemoth, it is sluggish, inefficient, lazy, and is out of control. To believe that it is working fine or that it could be improved is to ignore the facts. Both sides of the political divide demand a restructuring.
Democrats are looking towards a Socialist and Marxist solution.
Republicans are looking for a return to the 1776 Republic.
Both are looking to create a major war of distraction.
The compass is all over the place on this. One thing is for certain, the wealthy oligarchy loves the status quo and do not want to change anything. To make the changes that are necessary, a real revolution must occur.
The Federal Government will change substantially. I can offer no insight into what it will change into. Needless to say, the nation is completely divided and polarized and no matter who obtains the reins of power, large segments of the population will be unhappy. The only way that I can see any kind of satisfaction is by an overwhelmingly exhausted citizenry that is ready to accept change, no matter how radical it is.
Nor can I offer insight as to how this will happen. What I do know is that unless it happens, there will be no ‘Crisis Event”.
[3] The value of the USD will collapse.
The USD is presently losing its status as a global reserve currency.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with economic changes. I see an exponential increase in the value of the stock market with zero connection to the lives of actual American citizenry. I also see an exponential increase in the national debt. It doesn’t take a genius to see that both of these things are not sustainable.
People have been predicting the eventual collapse of the American economy for decades. Yet it still hums along. The only way that this will change is if the international medium of exchange changes. And there is evidence that this is exactly what is going on. I do not see this as a sudden, precipitous event, but rather a trend that continues over a long swath of time before the USD stabilizes.
The USD will significantly change in value negatively. This will occur over a period of time. The end result will be generalized discomfort for Americans on many levels.
What we are seeing RIGHT NOW is a movment to the discarding of the USD as a reserve currency and the adoption of the e-yuan instead.
[4] A very serious “Hot War” on American soil.
No, there will not be another Iraq, Afganastan, Yemen, or Syria in Ukraine. There will be a major, big and very nasty short war.
It WILL result in much damages, destruction and death on American soil.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with “hot wars”; shooting wars that occurring using the most advanced technology available, and they always occur on the soil of the leading economic power.
This Fourth Turning event is an American driven cycle. Not an Asian cycle.
Even if the nation stays together, its geography could be fundamentally changed, its party structure altered, its Constitution and Bill of Rights amended beyond recognition. History offers even more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation usually occurs around the climax of Crisis. If there is confrontation, it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war—class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or superpower war. If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nil—its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured. And if there is total war, it is likely that the most destructive weapons available will be deployed.
There is no avoiding this.
Russia will not allow a war near or on it’s borders. Anyone who thinks that they can “poke the bear” is going to be in for a rude, and horrifc shock. The same goes for China. Anyone who thinks that China will allow another Yemen, Afghanistan or Syria to occur in Taiwan, on the South China Sea is delusional.
War will happen fast and be over fast.
Within a month.
That’s FAST.
These nations do not play, are peer-capable, or superior in training and weaponry, and work together. The idea that America can take on China or Russia independently is a fantasy. Any war with either will result in a war with both simultaneously.
It’s a suicide move.
So forget the illusions that America has the biggest, the baddest, and the best military. It might get by trying twenty years to fight goat-herders with AK-47’s, but is no match for merit-based, well-trained, superior-armed, and a pissed-off Asia.
From 2017 through 2020, the United States “carpet bombed” China with bio-weapons. This effort affected Russia, and Iran. And of course, China, Iran and Russia knows who was involved, why and how.
But China, Russia and Iran didn’t take any obvious retaliatory action.
That should make every single Americans hair stand on end.
We should expect a major hot war. This war will be instigated though American actions and international activities.
Neither China, nor Russia are stupid. They will strike first. They will use full-spectrum nuclear weapons, and America will resemble one of the nations that it “bombed the shit out of” for democracy™.
[5] Cultural, and societal collapse.
Historically, Fourth Turnings are always associated with severe changes to society and the individuals who live inside America. In the past, Americans have been resilient enough, independent enough, and hardy enough to rebuild any collapsed society.
But today, I am not so sure.
With or without war, American society will be transformed into something different. The emergent society may be something better, a nation that sustains its Framers' visions with a robust new pride. Or it may be something unspeakably worse. The Fourth Turning will be a time of glory or ruin.
Most Americans are terribly overweight, and while many are functional with technology, during a period of societal collapse most technology will not operate in an optimal manner during a full scale Crisis Event.
During 2020 large segments of the American population failed to work together and wear masks during the pandemic. I just cannot imagine that Americans would rebuild radioactive cities, start planting vegetables in their suburban lawns, and working together for free.
Americans have been a historically resilient people, but whether or not they will be able to come together during the Crisis Event is unlikely. It is not a politically attractive position, but it is a realistic expectation.
Let’s combine everything together.
Well, there is nothing that I have said here that I have not covered elsewhere. But let’s see if we can compile some knowns to help us make a substantive predictive engine for our use.
In 2019, I created the following map which I extrapolated from Fourth Turning cycles and the Deagal (Remote Viewing) Report.
Keep in mind that this is just a predictive map. It may or may not happen.
.
Recent events suggest that things have accelerated somewhat, and are pushing the dates ahead by 1.5 years.
Uh Oh!
My argument is that the COVID-19 fiasco in the United States is not part of this collapse crisis vector. It is only a contributor.
Whether the future occurs as predicted will depend on the actions or inaction’s of the American Presidency. Any of the following events will probably unleash a particular singular element of the Crisis event.
Passage of restrictive laws that infringe on cherished Rights.
Freedom of Speech.
Gun control.
Travel / banking.
Ability to be employed.
A military action that involves either China, Russia or Iran. Perhaps all three.
No attempts at financial, banking or economic restructuring.
A trigger event being either “false flag” event of any purpose, or a major provication such as crossing a “red line”.
WMD (nuclear, biological, and chemical / EM) will be used.
These are all historical trendlines.
Knowing that these are exactly the same kind of modus operandi that Washington has used over the last fifty years, you can well expect that some or all of them will precipitate the Crisis event.
Year by Year expectations
The graphic above is pretty complex. Let’s look at it like you would a newspaper horoscope.
The key point representative of the year are in bold red.
Items that have been predicted correctly, that has already happened are in blue.
2021
The pandemic continues all year.
Posturing of various political and special interests organized by various oligarchies.
Internet freedoms curtailed.
Urban riots.
Submarines / US Naval vessels damaged or sunk.
Continued (minor) unrest on many levels.
A somewhat stabilization of the overall economic consideration.
An event that will force one of the major Asian powers to take action.
2022 Shit breaks out.
The pandemic continues.
Domestic unrest starts to manifest. Maybe shootings or some kind of organized behavior.
Asian powers threaten nuclear retaliation.
FEMA, NSA, FBI or other domestic agencies activated.
Rule by Executive Orders continue.
Major domestic crime.
Producted goods become harder and harder to obtain.
Some unpopular laws or regulations are implemented.
United States bioweapon activity starts to get public attention.
Inflation in the world grows to an unmanagable level.
Sides in a geopolitical conflict are established; Us vs. Them.
The mid-tem elections generate an electorial sweep.
The USA starts to get involved in some strong covert (not visible) international military actions.
American Congress start talking about fighting either Russia, China, Iran or North Korea directly.
Events force Russia or China to initiate hot kinetic wars.
2023 Crisis Deepens.
People are adapting to the Pandemic and it seems to be subsiding.
People refuse to mask up even when bioweapons are used in America.
Domestic unrest continues and gets more violent.
United States debt is beyond comprehension, and items become unobtainable.
The economy and the USD starts to falter.
Ambushes and attacks on American police.
The United States starts to have shortages in gasoline / heating fuel.
Economic Balloons start to “pop”.
The Internet starts to falter in many nations.
Rural communities starting to band together for protection.
American trade with China is decreased sharply.
Some states discuss leaving the Untied States.
The USD is no longer a major reserve currency.
The United States government starts seizing assets, energy, and finances from its enemies.
The Federal Government initiates a hot war with a major power as a desirable technique of distraction and unification.
The USA starts to engage in International Military Actions of some visible type. American soldiers are shooting at Asian powers and forces.
Risk of a HOT WAR is very high. It may or may not hit American soil.
2024 Insanity
Still a pandemic, but is seemingly under control.
Domestic unrest breaks out in open conflict in numerous areas.
The Federal Government starts to decentralize, or change in some significant manner.
The United States starts to have shortages in food.
The United States starts to have shortages in medicine.
Brown-outs roll throughout the United States.
The US government plans / talks about a draft and forced civilian enlistment.
The 2024 election is a crazy turmoil, and no one is happy with the results.
The economy starts a long sequence of contractions and mini-collapses.
The USD starts to have it’s value erode significantly.
SEVERE HOT WAR! Americans on American soil are affected. It’s not a “police action” in a far away land or sea.
The health system, inefficient and expensive, collapses completely.
Society is disrupted. Communication, transport, food, and electricity are all unreliable and disrupted.
The Election is a landslide for one political party who promises massive change.
2025 “Everything but the kitchen sink”
2025 will be like 2024, only crazier, and more intense.
American contractions at every level continue.
The Federal, and the States governments show complete incompetence.
Bad moves, and bad decisions result in numerous fiascos for the United States.
Discord and disruptions are commonplace and are no longer isolated to certain geographic regions. Everyone “feels the pinch”.
Some states start to actually leave the Untied States and restructure themselves.
Americans start to hunt, fish and eat pets in certain areas.
May people start to die of illnesses that could have been prevented or cured.
New illnesses and viruses start to appear all over America. These are far worse than the COVID-19. Americans treat them like the “seasonal flu”.
Everyone is in “survival mode”.
Americans start to turn to non-American news for information.
Most of the Hot War is over.
2026 “The Kitchen Sink gets included”
Anything that was good about 2025, is now gone.
FIASCO!
Normal lifestyles are permanently disrupted.
Urban areas are hotbeds of contentious activity.
The United States starts to put people in FEMA camps.
The United States start to shoot fellow Americans.
Woods and forests are flooded with urban refugees.
Hot war officially ends.
2027
Things are still crazy, but groups of people are working together to sort out the craziness.
The United States is largly gone.
A new type of government emerges.
Domestic discord and fighting continues, but it’s mostly “turf wars”.
The USD has substantially collapsed.
US economy is in ruins.
The government begins to discuss reconstruction efforts and mobilization of work forces for a common good.
2028
A new normal has arrived in America.
There is a new government, new people, new ideas, and new systems.
The USA is shattered and a real mess, but people are starting to band together in small groups to make things right in their little area of control.
People can see the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
2029
Reconstruction efforts begin.
Rehabilitation efforts begin.
New policies and lifestyles start to manifest.
A brighter future lies ahead for everyone still left alive.
Conclusion
I wrote this article after I watched the horrific section on Tucker Carlson FOX “news”.
He’s right.
War is bad, but not as bad as having United States Senators openly advocating war with nuclear armed Russia over a flat of bland terration that has zero strategic importance for America.
It just confirms my worst fears.
Here’s pretty much the future that most everyone in the collective West can look forward to.
Historically, the rising nations pretty much survives the Fourth Turning unscathed. I don’t think that they will remain as pristine as the USA did during World War II, but they will pretty much be in far better shape than the West.
There’s a lot of bullshit on the “news” sites.
But, I can positively say the following…
The United States caused the Ukraine-Russia war.
This is becuase they violated Russian“Red Lines”.
Now the United States wants to get involved in it directly.
Russia warned that it will destroy the USA if they don’t stop.
And for China, irregardless as to the absolute failure of the Italy talks…
The USA push towards war / sanctions with China is continuing.
China has repeatedly warned that it is a dragon that DOES bite.
The USA government is ignoring the warnings.
The USA government is proceeding with the violation of Chinese“Red Lines”.
2022 03 18 09 24
The article describes the actions. It’s crossing the Chinese “Red Lines”.
Internally, domestically…
Americans are happy for no more mask mandates.
Mass crime continues.
Inflation is absurd.
Washington DC is oblivious.
Supply Lines / trade is a complete fiasco.
The American “news” media is on overdrive and the propaganda is outrageous.
As far as Russia is concerned…
Leading Russian leadership personnel have evacuated Moscow and all the major cities. This and the very wealthy in Russia…
A large exodus of private jets out of Moscow towards Dubai this morning too. Looks like the uber-rich Arab oil Billionaires are high-tailing-it out of Moscow too.
From a source within the Diplomatic corps . . .
For the past three days, Russia has been pulling one of a kind, proprietary, machine dyes and templates, and putting into deep storage, along with items of cultural value.
On Thursday, 17MAR22, at 4:02pm EST, the formal message from Russia to the United States read…
"U.S. USED NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II AND HAS NO RIGHT TO PREACH TO US REGARDING OUR USE OF THEM."
Please plan to avoid the high risk areas. Note that I am conservative in my predicitons, and anumerous elements are proceeding in advance to what I predicted.
Good luck.
2022 03 17 23 44
This information is compiled from other sources.
To see the methodology in these other sources, please go to the Theories of Collapse Index here…
What this means is that the defense intelligence organizations represented by Deagel believe that there will be some kind of event or series of events that will result in a major population drop by 2025.
Deagel site projections.
From the chart above we can clearly see a number of conclusions or extrapolations that they have made.
I have an index that collects various observations regarding the internal collapse of the United States. That is in a sub-Index known as “Front Row Seat”.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The first part went out, and I was deluged by a bunch of gung-ho ‘Merica types accusing me of all sorts of things. Sheech! My thoughts are what is going on between Russia and the Ukraine / USA / NATO is very simple;
Obey the agreements that you signed.
If you don't, you risk war.
It’s not just me who believe this.
It’s EVERY FUCKING NATION on the planet except for the USA, UK, Australia, and NATO believes it.
And you cannot talk your way out of it, not matter how solidly you control the narrative. Your narrative is restricted to a very small “echo chamber” centered in the United States.
It is meaningless outside of it.
Ah.
2022 03 08 08 27 From Moon Over Alabama.
Sigh. The sheeple have been vault 7 programmed to NPC status. Angry; very, VERY angry. Mindless. Devoid of the ability to understand fundamentals. Sigh.
2022 03 08 23 01
About this article
Like the earlier article, we are going to go bullet point by bullet point in this one. Only the points will be a little better flushed out. But first; a map. This is day ten of the “invasion” (if you use the terminology of the United States), or the “special operation” (if you use the terminology of Asia.).
2022 03 08 09 45
Now for the points…
[1] Ukraine / Russia conflict is a different kind of war
The "gloves are off". No playing nice. Fight Russia at your own risk.
The Russians are calling this a “special operation”. This is in opposition to the United States and Western termonology. They refer to it as an invasion.
I would argue that this is a type of operation which has never been seen before. Ever.
Andrei Martyanov coined a very good term, he called it a “combined arms police operation”.
The term “combined arms” is, in the Russian military terminology, the “the main form of combat of modern armies, in which the efforts of formations, units and units of various types of ground forces are combined and coordinated with the actions of other types of armed forces“.
This type of warfare can only be conducted by combined arms units and implies an operational-level dimension. In other words, a combined arms operation has nothing in common with a police operation.
In this case, Andrei Martyanov is right.
What we are seeing here is a police operation whose aim is to disarm and apprehend/neutralize a criminal force, which itself is so big that it is capable of operational-level warfare. But not strategic nor tactical level warfare.
Normally, police operations are always on the low end of the tactical level spectrum (division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon) and rarely involve more than maybe a few APCs. This is clearly not the case today in the Ukraine where combat operations are clearly reaching operational and even strategic levels.
The United States set up a puppet government in Ukraine with the CIA / NGO “color revolution” of 2014. They gained support from nationalists who adopted a fierce neo-Nazi stance, and who even reactivated the Asov SS Division. The official AZOV emblem is the ‘Wolfsangel‘.
During World War II, various units of the German Nazi army used this symbol, including the SS Panzer Division.
The USA then funded the Ukraine president lavishly with nearly 2 billion dollars in off-shore accounts. He, in return for that enormous wealth, allowed the USA to dictate his actions. NATO was set up operationally, and in every manner, bioweapons facilities and nuclear launch sites were all set in motion.
Ukraine became the fourth largest recipient of American military weapons and equipment. Russia found this unacceptable.
And, as such, demanded the expansion of NATO stop, and the removal of nuclear systems for its borders. Russia, after the resounding “no” from both NATO and the United States carried out it’s ultimatum.
Right now, what we are witnessing is a total gutting of the United States puppet government and neo-Nazi elements, and a return to Ukraine independence and sovereignty.
This differs from an invasion. Where one nation invades another to seize it’s cities, land, people and resources.
[2] Incorrigable Criminal Elements
Taking point [1] to heart, the Nazi elements wearing Ukrainian uniforms, and firing American produced heavy weapons are considered to be criminal elements.
Those that join and support this band of criminals will be considered incorrigible foreign proxies desirous of prolonging criminal activity and will be hunted and killed.
It's not just me pointing out this fact.
Any one helping these criminals will themselves be treated as criminals.
Russia warns pro-Ukraine foreign fighters will be treated as criminals, not prisoner of war. And are treated appropiately.
Ukrainian President Zelensky says that already 16,000 foreigners have volunteered to fight for Ukraine against Russia. Websites are up to recruit, and the United States has set up training camps in Poland for them.
I hope that they made their peace with their families. This is not going to be a Yemen, Afganastan, Libya, or Syria.
The soldiers of the Chechen special forces have an order not to take mercenaries prisoner.
They WILL be killed after information is extracted.
You may disagree with their decision process, and operational orders, but you have to face reality. You must accept things as they are, not as you want them to be.
[3] NATO Planned to Launch a “first strike” Against Russia
The movement of nuclear forces on the Russian border was intended to zero out the advantage of Russia’s hyper-velocity nuclear arment. That’s what this entire conflict is all about.
And Russia said NO!
"The Russian government decided to stop this situation and restore order in Ukraine,” wrote Nikolai Azarov, who served as Ukrainian Prime Minister three times.
Through a message posted on Facebook on Friday, Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov claimed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planned a nuclear attack against Russia, taking advantage of the existence of geopolitical problems with Ukraine. And that Russia was forced to preempt that attack.
This was necessitated as a means to offset the offensive nuclear hyper-missile and SAM capability of Russia.
Anyone who cannot see that Russia was forced to lay down their "red lines", and respond to them being crossed, is an ignorant fool.
[4] Offensive Nuclear Warfare So… why piss around using conventional warfare in Ukraine?
Russia and China have formidable nuclear, city destroying capabilities.
Both the Russians and the Chinese possess hyper-velocity weapons that are able to [1] fly independently using AI, [2] evade and change course, [3] fire projectiles and vehicles, [4] are undetectable by radar, and [5] carry nuclear weapons.
These are generations beyond anything that the United States (and the West) have. It will take decades for the United States to reach parity.
[5] Defensive Nuclear Warfare So what? The United States Military Empire is the largest in history, and armed with massive impressive weapons. There should be nothing to be afraid of.
Right?
America and its allies lie defenseless.
Both the Russians and the Chinese possess advanced ABM shields that are able to [1] track, [2] decloak, [3] intercept, and [4] render inert / destroy incoming missiles, systems, or aircraft.
These systems are perfected and generations in advance of anything that the United States possess.
[6] Bioweapons What about other forms of weapons? Such as bioweapons…
They were put in play in 2017 under John Bolton, and backfired.
The United States is the undisputed leader in the development and manufacture of biological weapons. This continues in defiance of UN treaties. In fact, all of the new and novel viruses that plagued the world since the 1970s have been patented by the United States.
[5.1] Further, both the Chinese and the Russians have accused the United States for unleashing the Coronavirus B in China, Iran and North Korea in 2020. While inoculating the US and it's allies with Coronavirus A.
[5.2] China has accused the United States of using drones to destroy food and livestock from 2017 though 2021.
[5.3] Russia has accused the United States of setting up 15 bioweapons facilities on the Ukraine to Russian border.
[5.4] "Fact Checker" Snopes says that Bioweapons in use is a lie, that the United States would never do such a thing. Of course, they have been proven to be a propiganda outlet for the US government.
[5.5] Russia has acquired documents and supporting evidence from the captured bioweapons labs inside of the Ukraine. It's all over Chiense and Russian media. Nothing in Western Media.
This discovery of a laptop “smoking gun”, coupled by the likely shipment of Turkish drones modified for the delivery of toxic aerosols or other bio-toxins (identical to those that spread the swine flu to devistate the Chinese pork industy in 2017) immediately prior to the launch of the Special Operation serves to explain the RF attack.
The modified drones are unconfirmed as of yet, but two Turkish Airbus freighters were tracked landing in Ukraine immediately prior to the attack.
The laptop is physical evidence of a close association between NATO and the Nazis. This association pre-dates the Special Operation and indicates NATO complicity in an attack on both Donbass and Crimea. Ref HERE.
[7] Russia is not isolated and alone
The full spectrum propaganda onslaught consists of article after article about how isolated Russia is becoming. The average ill-informed person would easily come to the conclusion that Russia is a pariah and isolated and alone.
This is the desired effect, but not what is actually happening.
There is NOT one single thing that Europe, or America, or any of its allies provide to Russia that cannot be acquired from China. And China and Russia are joined at the hip. They are, and act as one.
Or, haven't you all been paying attention. Remember the massive document that they both signed during the Beijing Olmpics last month? You know the one; where MSNBC, Politico, and FOX "news" refered to it as "wordy gibberish".
In the future months or years, the American war-machine will ontinue to try to separte the two nations. They will propigandize a "mistake" and "fractures in the alliance". It will fail. They will then steer directly towards China, and try to isolate a united Russia and China alliance.
[8] China
The USA (and it's Western pawns) are decoupling from a world that will not accept its leadership.
Decoupling is not the end goal. It is the first step in establishing a return to a unipolar status quo.
The interm goal (in this process) is to destroy the rest of the world and have the United States be the sole remaining power. In effect, the lone "superpower" once again.
It sounds really bad. That is becuase it is.
To this end, the plan is for China to be isolated, and then destroyed. Leaving only the United States and it's proxies remaining.
This is a pretty obvious plan. Again, it's only the ignorant who see otherwise. All the scattered "puzzle pieces" fit into a picture that describes this agenda.
[9] Chinese “Red Lines”
This action, to initiate a war with China, will necessitate that the Chinese "red lines" be crossed. China clearly defined those "red lines". Just like Russia did.
When that happens, there will be a short and very nasty war.
"Red Lines" are absolute.
When the smoke clears, Taiwan will be integrated with the mainland, all American naval bases in the Pacific will be gone, as will be any carrier flotillas as well. You can expect the Hawaiian islands, and all the stateside naval facilities erased.
I recon that it will probably be the "spark" that launches nuclear destruction of the United States mainland.
There will be mass casualties on both sides.
The magnitude of which will depend on the skills of the leadership of the nations involved. Biden and NATO vs. Xi Peng and Putin.
It is up to the reader to determine, for themselves, who are stronger and better leaders. Then come to your own opinions.
[10] The United States is NOT READY for a defeat
Most of the Western people; Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Japanese are of the strong belief that America (as the greatest military force in all history) can never be defeated.
Never, as in absolutely, positively inconceivable.
The loss of every carrier in the Navy, the nuclear destruction of the top thirty American cites, and the ensuing chaos will absolutely crush the United States psyche. It's so absoltuely weak now that a feather could push it over. Imagine what would happen when the largest remaining intact American city would be Des Moines, Iowa.
Both Russia or China could do it right now, and the United States could not stop it at all. The only thing that the USA can do is to try to launch it's SLBMs from the remaining active boomer submarines.
To quote a scene from the movie "The Princess Bride"; It's inconceivable.
It’s inconceivable.
[11] The anti-Russia narrative of “a big Russian mistake” will end
The current US PSYOP narrative about the Russians being defeated and on full retreat will not survive this weekend.
It will now change. It will now shift to “Putin’s rape camps and torture of poor suffering Ukraine”.
Remember all the accusations of genocide against the Serbs in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo? This is what will happen to Russia next – a massive wave of accusations of atrocities and genocide.
The (so-called) “free and democratic press” will now switch to the fabricated lies pushing the American people towards more War! War! War!
[12] The United States is running Ukraine
[11.1] Former UkrainePresident Volodymyr Zelensky is living in the United States embassy in Poland.
[11.2] The orders for the remaining Ukrainian military forces come out of the American Embassy in Ukraine.
These two points clearly show that the United States is "running the show" and is in charge of everything in the Ukraine right now.
[13] New Global Transaction System
Discussed earlier. SWIFT is obsolete. But what does that mean?
Gold is an alternative. Both Russia and China barter directly in raw materials, physical products or gold / precious metals.
Any nation not able to do so, whether they have no factories, no resources, or no valuable metals, will be forced to rely on coercion to manage their trade. Already, much of the world is unwilling to accept this state much longer.
Keep in mind that not only is China the manufacturer for the world, China’s $3.2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves is greater than the $2.3 trillion value of ALL the world’s central bank gold reserves.
The ability for nations to conduct trade will be polarized. Either [12.1] continue to use SWIFT backed with worthless paper, or [12.2] deal with a united Russia-China alliance backed by gold, material resources, and manufactured products.
There are no other options. The choice will depend on the level of independence over coercion by the United States.
It's not just CIPS. It's not just a switch from one system to the other. The exchange rate in the system is tied to the value of the monetary unit in use. If most of the world transacts in gold, and the remaining few transacts in American-backed paper, the exchange rate will reflect that.
Expect a plunge in the value of the USD globally, and with that will come geometric and even exponential increases in American (but not global) inflation.
The inflation will be directly tied to the nations that continue to use the USD.
So, in the future, inflation will NOT be a global experience, as all the alternative websites out of the USA are predicting. No. it will be a localized one based on the form of financial transfer.
[14] Putin’s popularity is not collapsing
The Western narrative is that the war in Ukraine is going to bring about the "fall of Putin". That's just PSYOPS.
The truth is that his popularity is soaring. Western readers will be unaware of that, as all news from Russia and China are banned.
I have tons of videos that refect this. All you need to do is crawl out from the isolation net of the West.
[15] First World vs. Third World
I have documented the severe disconnect between what the West (especially Americans) believe and what is actually occurring.
For instance, the term "First World" is used to describe the United States and Europe, while "Third World" is used to describe Russia, China and Africa.
That is wildly innacurate.
China is definitely, and certainly, First World.
This is not simply my personal opinion, it's backed by just every measurable statistic. While the United States has fallen way, way, WAY behind. It is approaching third class world.
No new parks, infrastructure, advanced crime control. No energy friendly infrastructure, nor merit driven initatives. No high-speed public transportation, and crime and homelessness abound. Heck! Americans still use paper money. I'm not at all exaggerating.
[16] Sweden and Finland
The idea that either Sweden or Finland would enter the fray by joining NATO should send shivers up everyone's spine.
Russia's "red lines" are fixed and immovable.
Thus, were Sweden or Finland opt to become members of NATO, they would be crossing the Russian "Red Lines". The Russian reaction to it will be harsh and direct.
From the point of view of Russia these are non-negotiable "red lines" and crossing them is an act of war.
If forced, Russia will take on any country, including any NATO member country, which will assist the Ukrainians militarily.
If forced, Russia will even fight all of NATO and the USA together and, if forced, she will use all her weapons, including nuclear ones.
And if that means that the entire planet is nuked then, as Putin said, “we have no need for a planet without Russia”.
All this is to say that Russia is not bluffing, Putin will not back down and that there is no price which Russia would not be willing to pay to prevail in this existential war.
Russia will not stop until her existence is made safe again.
[17] Nazi hardliners in Ukraine
You just cannot make this stuff up, but hard-line Ukraine nationalists have adopted the Nazi Germany regalia, systems, history and organization from the former Nazi Germany. And they are fanatic and radical in their beliefs.
HERE and HERE.
For instance, they killed one of their own negotiators with the Russians for not taking an absolute to-the-death stance.
[18] Why defend the United States?
My personal opinions. But sheech! people. When you live in a place where the streets are clean, radicals of every kind (SJW, BLM, and KKK) are put in mental hospitals, the people are happy, and parks are everywhere… the USA really, REALLY looks like a steaming pile of dog shit.
In watching all the "news" and opinions flying about, I am just stunned. The individuals all talk that it is necessary to defend the values and democracy-based freedoms of the United States and those of Western Europe.
What freedoms?
What democracy?
The mere fact that American and Western access to Russian and Chinese news is banned is a sign FOR CERTAIN that there is no freedom. In both China and RUssia you can easily get Western news. Not so, the other way around.
In fact, you cannot name one Right (in the Bill of Rights) that does not have exceptions.
For instance, the second amendment has an entire agency (the ATF) whose entire purpose is to infringe on it and limit its use and application. The ninth amendment has the FDA. The first amendment has the FCC, and technocrats. But I will stop here. I have written many an article on this.
The USA is an oligarchy-ruled Military Empire. It is not a "democracy".
2022 03 08 09 02
[19] The Ukraine war has already resulted in thousands of money-making for-profit corportations
Wow. That was quick! Eh?
2022 03 07 09 00
[20] The United States “approves” or “will …”
I read articles all of the world, and they are disturbing to me.
US Tells Germany To Stop Using Huawei Equipment OrUS allows S. KoreaUS allows NATO allies ...US has allowed Poland to supply jets...
Let me remind everyone, that in a true democratically led world, no one nation would be able to tell another what to do. All nations would be souvern. But that is not so under a unipolar global kingdom such as the United States demands.
People should really reflect on the reality.
The United States is a Military Empire and all those "Western democracies" are but proxy governments for use by the USA to do with as it pleases. And it chooses them to fight the wars it starts, while the war-mongering neocons sit safe and sound inside their plush mansions in the United States.
[21] Russia has already switched to Chinese banking
Instead of thinking that it "might happen", remember that you are dealing with a unified Russia / Chinese alliance. It "has happened".
Russian banks are fully on board with CIPS.
It has been confirmed that Russia is switching its whole system to China's UnionPay.
UnionPay, an international payment system founded in 2002, received international status in 2005. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company reportedly operates in more than 180 countries across the globe, including Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Cyprus, Thailand, India, Israel, Portugal, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.
In the future, you will see more and more of these "well, it could, but..." things changed to "...is in place.".
[22] India has joined the Russian / China alliance.
It's not well publicized. But the alliance is really firming up. The majority of the world is sticking with Asia.
Andrei has a very good video on this subject HERE.
Aside from the casting of diplomatic votes, however, the response from Southeast Asian governments has been diverse — and, some say, muted. Singapore made the rare decision to impose sanctions on Russia, and Indonesia quickly criticized the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, flip-flopped and described itself as neutral. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia have remained quiet.
[24] Gas to Europe has been cut
Sure you all know that. Right?
Westbound gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped on Thursday, while bids remained for supplies in both directions, according to data tracked by the pipeline operator Gascade. Russia covers nearly 40% of European gas demand with the Yamal-Europe route accounting for nearly 15% of the country’s westbound supply.
This will SUBSTANTIALLY affect the quality of life, and manufacturing inside of Europe. You cannot put a good spin on this. It will cause an increase in all prices for everything, as well as factory shutdowns and slow downs with will result in layoffs and unemployment.
[25] American and European PSYOPS have fled Russia
All the standard "news" media operations have fled Russia.
Why? Well, Russia passed a law that if you publish provable fake or false information, you WILL be held personally responsible and you WILL be treated as a military combatant, in disguise; fighting Russia.
All those desk-jockeys regurgitating NSA psyops informtion for the five-eyes are now looking at capture, torture and death. No wonder they are scared shitless and scurrying off like rats off a sinking ship.
Interesting, but I believe that this is a policy that is a copy of what Xi Peng implemented in China.
That Chinese policy sure as fuck cleaned out the various CIA and NGO "rats nests" and stopped all the color revolutions in HK, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Shanghai. I've got tons of vieos showing the CIA assets rounded up. It's impressive as all Hell.
On a somber note. Most of the captured were interrogated and then killed. China does not play.
[26] This is a REAL war
Listen up people!
This is not Vietnam, or Afganastan, or Syria. This is a serious war; being conducted by serious, serious people. They have serious objectives and are fighting for their very existence.
Russia is fighting against a United States backed, proxy, Nazi fanatical organization that is well armed, and who's role is to prolong the fighting until death.
This is not a sports event.
Russia is trying to avoid mass destruction and civilian casualities. However, if that is not possible, then cities will be absolutely and positively flattened to rubble.
[27] Outside of the United States and NATO, billions of people root for Russia
Not the impression that you would get from Western "news" eh?
Well it is true. China, and India are both cheering for Russia. Together that is 2 billion people.
As well as almost all of Africa. That's another 2 billion people.
All told, just by that rough estimation we are looking at 4 billion people in favor of Russians action, and perhaps a half a billion from the USA and Europe.
HERE and HERE.
.
And I might add the enormous Middle East. Who do you think that they are rooting for?
[28] Consequences of Sanctioning Russia
In the big scheme of things, everything will adjust to a "new normal". However, many Western corporations will be adversely affected.
.
For example, the EU demanded that all Russian leases on Airbus jets—over 500 of them—be cancelled. It also blocked the sale of Airbus parts to Russia and forbade Russian planes from being serviced. It also closed its airspace to Russian planes and Russia closed its airspace to EU planes in response. The EU also blocked the SWIFT payment system. This means the following things:
• The European leasing companies will have to pay Russia huge fines for canceling the leases but can’t because SWIFT isn’t working.
• The European leasing companies have to get their planes out of Russian territory but can’t because their flight crews can’t get into Russia and once they take possession of the planes the planes won’t be allowed to take off (airspace is closed).
• The planes can no longer be serviced according to the maintenance schedule, which means that in a couple of months they won’t be able to fly at all.
• Given that this is a force majeur circumstance, the Russian government can very easily nationalize these planes, including all of the intellectual property and patent rights contained therein, and start making their own parts and providing their own service.
• There are around 600 airplanes and helicopters stranded in Russia. Stock price of both Boing and Eurobus is not reflecting this fact. One leased plane makes between 50k to 100k per month. On top of that loss, these planes can be confiscated in case Russian property is taken.
• Given all of the above, the obvious choice for the European leasing companies to declare bankruptcy and cease operations. Company representatives have said as much.
[29] Numerous “War Hawk” American neocons want direct military conflict with Russia
A true “Death wish” fueled by ego and ignorance.
It's true, and very dangerous.
.
The Russians have the capability to launch an absolutely devastating first strike from their super quiet “black hole” nuclear submarines.
From positions just off the American coasts, those submarines could potentially reduce much of the United States defenses to ashes in just a matter of minutes.
Most Americans don’t understand how serious this threat is.
A nuclear war with Russia must be avoided, because the consequences would be unimaginable.
Thankfully, the federal government has issued some updated guidelines for how ordinary Americans should respond if a nuclear attack does actually happen…
Stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities provide other instructions. Continue to practice social distancing by wearing a mask and by keeping a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who not part of your household.Family should stay where they are inside. Reunite later to avoid exposure to dangerous radiation.Keep your pets inside.
You may not last very long after such an attack happens, but at least you can help prevent the spread of COVID by practicing social distancing and by wearing a mask.
[30] Fertilizer catastrophie
Russia stopped all it's exports of fertilizer to the West. The West will now be forced to acquire it from secondary sources. Such as Bolivia.
Ollie Vargas reports from Bolivia:
Bolivia was exporting fertilizer (urea) for $300 per tonne until last week. International price is now $900 per tonne since sanctions on Russia started and Russia stopped loading fertilizer for export. Bolivia built its own nationalized fertilizer factory. Brazil closed theirs after the neoliberal turn. Now, the price of urea and ammonium is going through the roof due to Ukraine conflict. Those who import it will be hit with severe inflation on foodstuffs.
I argue that it might result in a combination of inflation plus scarcity.
[31] An interesting video on a Urkaine Military Base
The narrator walks around the hastily abandoned based. It was an obvious rout. They discuss that routs tend to happen when the operational leadership flees, leaving the rank and file soldiers to fend for themselves.
RT vid on abandon ukraine army camp. They left everything. .
[32] Nice summary about the Geo-political ramifications
Best Sitrep channel with on map analysis I have seen so far.
Frequent updates, and long impartial, detailed and accurate analyses of the situation. Definitely deserve much more publicity. Some gentleman from Singapore as I understand. Well worth it:
Defence Politics Asia .
[35] The goal is a long-duration war
This Video exposes the provocations of neo-Nazis who, by bombing and killing their own people, create a "pretty" picture for the Western media.
This is once again showing the fact that the main goal of the West in Ukraine is to turn it into a second Afghanistan.
https://youtu.be/yIS5Wik2r0E .
[36] British BBC instructs how everyone can attack Russan armor
BBC personnel now posting on Twitter how and where to throw a Molotov cocktail for Ukrainians who want to attack Russian vehicles. The BBC employee is telling them to throw the Molotov cocktails through the viewing hatches, and the air inlets of Russian military vehicles.
https://twitter.com/BowenBBC/status/1499668674940133378?cxt=HHwWhICzqdut8s8pAAAA .
[37] Pakastan
Pakistan actually has a real leader, not afraid to speak the truth. So refreshing... if I was a Pakistani, I would be very proud... HERE. .
Latvia citizens would see fines up to 700 EUR for "using illegal content services". "Not only rights of protected service providers [may be violated by use of illegal systems] but also customers might obtain services, which are illegal in Latvia". So, in other words, don't read any news out of Russia.
EuroUnion runs amok...HERE.
[40] NATO evidence seized
The Ukraine was acting as a NATO member and taking orders fromt he United States, even though not formally part of NATO. This came just in from a german journalist living in Donezk, needs verification. Quick translation via Deepl:
Premier of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin gives emergency press conference. Detailed explanation and translation will follow tonight by Thomas Röper. The content of the speech in brief:
🔺A laptop was found on a hastily abandoned military base in Ukraine - which is registered with NATO
🔺 On it are data of American reconnaissance flights carried out over the Donbass and Crimea with unmanned drones in recent years (officially confirmed)
🔺This means that the Americans have passed on their data to the Ukrainian army, i.e. they support them.
🔺 Military strategic objects of Russia and the Donbass were marked on the maps created with these data
🔺 AND THERE ARE SAID TO BE NATO ATTACK PLANS INTO RUSSIA FOR MARCH 8 ON THE LAPTOP.
If this is true, then this is proof that NATO is supporting Ukraine in taking back the Donbass and Crimea by force.
NATO Laptop is now on sputniknews.com
NATO-Labelled Laptop With Intelligence Found at Ukrainian Nationalists' HQ, DPR Head Says
[41] Ukraine was a de-facto NATO military state
Not officially, of course. But militairily yes.
The fact is that the Ukrainian army is already de facto NATO army in everything related to Command and Control.
[42] News machines creating an illusion
The illusions created by the American (Western “news”) are off the charts. And yet, you know, people believe these lies. Meanwhile the United States is going to shit. Check out these screen captures…
First one…
Putin continues with the deaths of many a Russion while the valiant Ukrainians hold on bravely. 1000 Russians dead per day! Russian victory is NOT INEVITABLE! Don’t you know. And of course, the Russians hate him. That’s why protests are everywhere. Uh huh…
2022 03 08 08 13
Second one…
Russian mistakes. Ukraine is “decimating” the invading Russians! Russian officer pleads for mercy! Russia now faces a quagmire… Uh huh.
2022 03 08 08 1a3
Third one…
“Shows Putin is on the way out…” Yah. The Russian Ruble is on the way out, it’s collapsing every which way… Uh huh.
If you read this post, Russia should be about finished and USA and NATO can just take a leisurely drive to Moscow to remove the current management and install new management.
I really don’t know who would believe this, because the actions the RF is currently undertaking does not even remotely match what is being said (i.e. not much escalation or change in plan of the RF nor new weapons systems coming on board at the moment)
2022 03 08 08 15
.[43] Enemies of Russia The Russians have now officially declared all the following countries as “hostile”: from HERE.
All EU member States,
The USA
Australia
Albania
Andorra
Czech Republic
Great Britain (including Jersey, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar)
Iceland
Canada
Liechtenstein
Micronesia
Monaco
New Zealand
Norway
Republic of Korea
San Marino
North Macedonia
Singapore
Taiwan
Ukraine
Montenegro
Switzerland
Japan
What does this mean? At the time of writing (14:00 EST) all the Russians are saying is that there will be “financial and diplomatic consequences”.
I expect both diplomatic and economic sanctions to be announced in the coming days. And they will hurt like hell. The two geo-political blocs are shaping up. These nations seem to be all part of the “uni-polar, United States led, Western block”. Those highlighted in red are the most signifigant members.
[44] Andrei predictions Here is how I see it and PLEASE tell me I am wrong!
The Ukraine has lost the war, she will be disarmed and denazified
The West is waging total informational and economic war against Russia and believing much of its own propaganda (which is fantastically dangerous!)
The western public has been sold nonsense about the Ukies being at the gates of Moscow and Russia being ready to surrender. Which means that when the reality will become undeniable there will be A LOT of VERY butthurt folks out there pointing fingers.
Even much worse will be the folks who will try to still overturn this outcome. I am talking about the true nutcases in NATO (and in some sections of the USA ruling elites) which simply cannot even *imagine* that Russia holds all the cards, including the military one.
I can easily imagine, say, a Polish column with weapons and mercenaries crossing into the Ukraine and being wiped out by Russian missiles. I ask you this: what will NATO do next?
In fact, let me rephrase my question this way:
Is it at all possible that this war can end without a direct military confrontation between NATO and Russia, keeping in mind that NATO cannot win and NATO cannot accept defeat?
Sadly, I don’t think so anymore, that kind of folly is a direct consequence of the Western PSYOPs which have convinced the folks in the West of two crucial things:
1) Russia cannot win and
2) Putin is bluffing.
I think that the folks in the Pentagon are smart enough to know that this is all bull, but what of the Eurorodents inside NATO and the EU?
[45] Details on the fighting As a reminder…
The Ukronazi armed forces are down to less than 25% of its original size.
Almost all the remaining forces are in some type or another of cauldrons.
Russia has full air supremacy
The Ukronazi fleet does not exist anymore
In spite of all the propaganda, no help from abroad will affect the outcome of this war
It appears that Russia will surround Odessa and eventually take control of the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast
In other words, what seems to be shaping up is that Russia will soon have control over the entire Ukraine except for the western provinces (west of Vinnitsa and Zhitomir). In other words, the war is over, at least militarily.
[46] The FINAL “nail in the coffin” of Russian use of the USD
[48] Australia formally demounces China and is building a military base to house forces to fight China
Australian PM denounces China and announces $10 billion nuclear submarine base
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday exploited the Russian invasion of Ukraine to launch another major military buildup, starting with building a $10 billion base for US, UK and Australian nuclear-powered submarines on Australia’s east coast, clearly directed at preparing for war against China.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/08/morr-m08.html
[49] No resistence from Bandera
According to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, the special forces of the republic, which are taking part in the operation on the territory of Ukraine, continue to move into the country without meeting resistance from Bandera.
Kadyrov explained that the fighters regularly send him video reports on the execution of the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
"The cleansing of the territory from the criminal elements of Bandera is proceeding according to the schedule. Our soldiers are not meeting fierce resistance from Bandera," Kadyrov said.
https://www.mk.ru/politics/2022/03/08/kadyrov-chechenskiy-specnaz-ne-vstrechaet-soprotivleniya-banderovcev.html?from=article_mi_b
[50] Italy seizes $156 million worth of yachts and villas belonging to Russian oligarchs
[52] Guidance on how to write Hit-Pieces against China
Global business journalism program in China open [Worldwide] | International Journalists' Network
Each and everyone of your are super qualify for the program, is an opportunity to experience first hand how this western propaganda machine operating inside China work,
https://ijnet.org/en/opportunity/global-business-journalism-program-china-open-worldwide
He told the Chinese deligation that the USA had talked with Taiwan. They had changed their position from "Go ahead and be independent, we will support you", to "No, do not even try to break away".
The Chinese reaction was "Thank you, but your words have zero value. You repeatedly lie and break treaties.".
[58] A captured “Russian Officer”
From MoA.
Russian soldiers are CLEAN SHAVEN.
2022 03 09 08 12
[59] Others are finally starting to agree with MM…
Efforts to decimate Russia’s economy to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine could have serious and unpredictable implications at home for the U.S. and its allies….Energy and food prices are the quickest way Americans could feel shockwaves from Russia’s decline, particularly if Biden takes action against Russian oil imports.Crude oil prices are up roughly 20 percent over the past two weeks, enough to knock 0.2 percentage points from U.S. gross domestic product, according to economists at Goldman Sachs.They also expect inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index to 0.2 percentage points thanks to “higher food prices, increased production costs due to rising commodity prices and increased transport costs due to shipping disruptions.”[Rachel] Ziemba [founder of macroeconomic advisory firm Ziemba Insights] said a ban on Russian oil imports would largely be “symbolic” and simply send barrels to other markets.“When we’re thinking of the cost-benefit analysis, it’s not clear to me that the pain here justifies the pain to Russia,” she said.
Michael Hudson gives an overview of the broader implications for the US.
By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Empires often follow the course of a Greek tragedy, bringing about precisely the fate that they sought to avoid. That certainly is the case with the American Empire as it dismantles itself in not-so-slow motion.
The basic of assumption of economic and diplomatic forecasting is that every country will act in its own self-interest.
Such reasoning is of no help in today’s world.
Observers across the political spectrum are using phrases like “shooting themselves in their own foot” to describe U.S. diplomatic confrontation with Russia and allies alike.
For more than a generation the most prominent U.S. diplomats have warned about what they thought would represent the ultimate external threat: an alliance of Russia and China dominating Eurasia.
America’s economic sanctions and military confrontation has driven them together, and is driving other countries into their emerging Eurasian orbit. American economic and financial power was expected to avert this fate.
During the half-century since the United States went off gold in 1971, the world’s central banks have operated on the dollar standard, holding their international monetary reserves in the form of U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. bank deposits and U.S. stocks and bonds.
The resulting Treasury-bill standard has enabled America to finance its foreign military spending and support its deindustrialization-driven chronic trade deficits by creating dollar IOUs that other countries accept. U.S. balance-of-payments deficits end up in the central banks of payments-surplus countries as their reserves, while Global South debtors need dollars to pay their bondholders and conduct their foreign trade.
This monetary privilege – dollar seignorage – has enabled U.S. diplomacy to impose neoliberal policies on the rest of the world, without having to use much military force of its own except to grab Middle Eastern oil.
The recent escalation of U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies.
And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.
So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two.
The basic theme of my Super Imperialism has been how, for the past fifty years, the U.S. Treasury-bill standard has channeled foreign savings to U.S. financial markets and banks, giving dollar diplomacy a free ride.
I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States.
But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.
I had expected that the end of the dollarized imperial economy would come about by other countries breaking away.
But that is not what has happened. U.S. diplomats themselves have chosen to end international dollarization themselves, while helping Russia build up its own means of self-reliant agricultural and industrial production.
This global fracture process actually has been going on for some years now, starting with the sanctions blocking America’s NATO allies and other economic satellites from trading with Russia.
For Russia, these sanctions had the same effect that protective tariffs would have had. Russia had remained too enthralled by free-market ideology to take steps to protect its own agriculture or industry.
The United States provided the help that was needed by imposing domestic self-reliance on Russia.
When the Baltic states lost the Russian market for cheese and other farm products, Russia quickly created its own cheese and dairy sector – while becoming the world’s leading grain exporter.
Russia is discovering (or is on the verge of discovering) that it does not need U.S. dollars as backing for the ruble’s exchange rate.
Its central bank can create the rubles needed to pay domestic wages and finance capital formation.
The U.S. confiscations thus may finally lead Russia to end of neoliberal monetary philosophy, as Sergei Glaziev has long been advocating in favor of MMT.
The same dynamic undercutting ostensible U.S aims has occurred with U.S. sanctions against the leading Russian billionaires.
The neoliberal shock therapy and privatizations of the 1990s left Russian kleptocrats with only one way to cash out on the assets they had grabbed from the public domain.
That was to incorporate their takings and sell their shares in London and New York. As a result, domestic savings had been wiped out, and U.S. advisors persuaded Russia’s central bank not to create its own ruble money.
The final result was that Russia’s national oil, gas and mineral patrimony was not used to finance a rationalization of Russian industry and housing.
Instead of the revenue from privatization being invested to create new Russian means of protection, it was burned up on nouveau-riche acquisitions of luxury British real estate, yachts and other global flight-capital assets.
But the effect of making Russian dollar, sterling and euro holdings hostage has been to make the City of London too risky a venue in which to hold their assets.
By imposing sanctions on richest Russians closest to Putin, U.S. officials hoped to induce them to oppose his breakaway from the West, and thus to serve effectively as NATO agents-of-influence.
But for the Russian billionaires, their own country is starting to look safest.
For many decades now, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have fought against gold recovering its role in international reserves.
But how will India and Saudi Arabia view their dollar holdings as Biden and Blinken try to strong-arm them into following the U.S. “rules-based order” instead of their own national self-interest?
The recent U.S. dictates have left little alternative but to start protecting their own political autonomy by converting dollar and euro holdings into gold as an asset free of political liability of being held hostage to the increasingly costly and disruptive U.S. demands.
U.S. diplomacy has rubbed Europe’s nose in its abject subservience by telling its governments to have their companies dump the Russian assets for pennies on the dollar after Russia’s foreign reserves were blocked and the ruble’s exchange rate plunged.
Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other U.S. investors moved quickly to buy up what Shell Oil and other foreign companies were unloading.
Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take.
But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level.
It no longer is just about Ukraine.
That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.
The next showdown may come within Europe itself as nationalist politicians seek to lead a break-away from the over-reaching U.S. power-grab over its European and other Allies to keep them dependent on U.S.-based trade and investment.
The price of their continuing obedience is to impose cost-inflation on their industry while relinquishing their democratic electoral politics to subordination to America’s NATO proconsuls.
These consequences cannot really be deemed “unintended.” Too many observers have pointed out exactly what would happen – headed by President Putin and Foreign Secretary Lavrov explaining just what their response would be if NATO insisted in backing them into a corner while attacking Eastern Ukrainian Russian-speakers and moving heavy weaponry to Russia’s Western border.
The consequences were anticipated.
The neocons in control of U.S. foreign policy simply didn’t care.
Recognizing its concerns was deemed to make one a Putinversteher. What foreign countries have not done for themselves to replace the IMF, World Bank and other arms of U.S. diplomacy, American politicians are forcing them to do.
Instead of European, Near Eastern and Global South countries breaking away out of their own calculation of their long-term economic interests, America is driving them away, as it has done with Russia and China.
More politicians are seeking voter support by asking whether they would be better served by new monetary arrangements to replace dollarized trade, investment and even foreign debt service.
The energy and food price squeeze is hitting Global South countries especially hard, coinciding with their own Covid-19 problems and the looming dollarized debt service coming due. Something must give.
How long will these countries impose austerity to pay foreign bondholders? Well? How will the U.S. and European economies cope in the face of their sanctions against imports of Russian gas and oil, cobalt, aluminum, palladium and other basic materials?
Any ideas?
American diplomats have made a list of raw materials that their economy desperately needs and which therefore are exempt from the trade sanctions being imposed.
This provides Mr. Putin a handy list of our pressure points to use in reshaping world diplomacy and help European and other countries break away from the Iron Curtain that America has imposed to lock its satellites into dependence on high-priced U.S. supplies.
But the final breakaway from NATO’s adventurism must come from within the United States itself.
As this year’s midterm elections approach,
Republicans are likely to harp on price inflation led by gasoline and energy as a Biden failure.
It’s not clear if the pro-Ukraine propaganda will have lost its effectiveness due to over-exposure.
But if Russia wins the war in short order, the Republicans could hammer on Biden for relying on costly, arguably ill thought out, and ineffective economic sanctions America needs Russian oil and gas exports.
Gas is necessary not only for heating and energy production, but to make fertilizer, of which there already is a world shortage.
That has been exacerbated by blocking Russian and Ukrainian grain exports to send U.S. and European food prices soaring.
Trying to force Russia to respond militarily and thereby look bad to the rest of the world is turning out to be a stunt aimed simply at demonstrating Europe’s need to contribute more to NATO, buy more U.S. military hardware and lock itself deeper into trade and monetary dependence on the United States.
The instability that this has caused could have the effect of making the United States look as threatening as Russia used to be.
European officials did not feel uncomfortable in telling the world about their worries that Donald Trump was crazy and upsetting the apple cart of international diplomacy.
But they seem to have been blindsided at the Biden Administration’s resurgence of visceral Russia-hatred by Secretary of State Blinken and Victoria Nuland-Kagan.
Trump’s mode of expression and mannerisms may have been uncouth, but America’s neocon gang has much more globally threatening confrontation obsessions.
For them, it was a question of whose reality would emerge victorious:
The “reality” that they believed they could create,
or,
The actual economic reality that lies outside of U.S. control.
Conclusion
It’s what it is.
It’s the start of the big pivot to a new global order; one where the United States is a minor “player”, and it’s proxy nations (NATO, the QUAD), become third world, poverty stricken, cesspools.
More changes to come, however the end result will be the same. There is no fucking way in Hell that American can maintain a unipolar command status. No bloody way.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Apparently, the United States, and the rest of the Western bloc, was so positive that they could goad Russia into a war in the Ukraine that they produced tons of videos of an invasion. Of course, these were to be broadcast to the American sheeple and the European sheeple as proof of Russian aggression and the brave Ukraine fighters. It’s all part of the “grand scheme”. Nothing happened. Russia didn’t fall for the bait, or allow the tricks to manifest, and now all these videos are unused. Nevertheless, many are now leaked and available on the internet. Here we discuss these videos.
The United States NEEDS a war. It does.
Not the people, of course. The oligarchy does, and the military-industrial complex does. And they are pushing and pushing and pushing for one.
This time, they are pushing against a very dangerous, capable and talented people that are bigger, stronger, tougher, and nastier than anything America has ever experienced before.
Yet, it’s the same old script.
Goad a nation into a military response. Push and push, and push and push, until they snap back. The United States has been hitting two tender areas. One against China against it’s Taiwan break-away province, and one against Russia by the placement of nuclear weapons on the Russian border there in the Ukraine.
If the nation doesn’t fight back, then the “false flag” playbook comes out.
False Flag
A “false flag” scenario occurs when a group deliberately misrepresents affiliation and hides its true identity.
It is used widely during war and covert operations.
It is a deceptive move undertaken by a country or an organization to set up an attack.
Pirate ships often used “false flags” of nations to deceive merchant ships while undertaking an attack under a “false flag“.
There are numerous examples throughout history of military troops stealing uniforms from their enemy to take part in covert operations in order to carry out a clandestine military campaign.
The “false flag” tactic is often used to start a war.
False Flag operations CIA had reportedly carried a false flag operation in 1953 against Iran’s former PM Mohammad Mosaddeq in order to successfully launch operation TPAJAX as it conducted bombing campaigns which were blamed on communist sympathisers. A declassified report claimed Britain’s MI6 and the CIA jointly undertook the operations.
The Ukraine Events
Numerous “False Flag” events were planned and thwarted in the Ukraine.
It appears that Russia were expecting numerous false flag events, and had sympathizers and agents on the ground in the Ukraine that stopped the events. As far as I can determine, these were two separate attempts at trying to release a chemical warfare event to be blamed on Russia.
They are on the Internet, I won’t dwell too much about them here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today told his military officers that Moscow will deliver a technical-military response to NATO. President Putin made remarks to the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense. Russia’s Defense Ministry is managed by a council chaired by the Defense Minister, deputy defense ministers, the heads of the Main Defense Ministry and General Staff Directorates, the commanders of the Joint Strategic Commands, and the three services of the armed forces.Defense Minister Segei Shogu also spoke to the defense council.
Gen. Shogiu accused the United States of sending private military contractors to Ukraine to plot a false flag event involving chemical weapons that could be blamed on Russia.
Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 12/21/21
Once they were prevented, and the CIA / Mi6 / 5eye assets were interrogated and killed. In a panic, the collective West flooded the internet with garbage about Putin planning false flag attacks. So it’s now very difficult to find any information at all about what really happened; The United States false-flag attacks. All you see is the flooded propigana about Russia planning false-flag attacks. Not the actual CIA false-flag events.
The real truth is now all buried and hidden under a thick layer of nonsense.
Why the Hell would Russia want to attack the Ukraine?
Seriously. All this war talk, and no one is discussing the big “why?”.
The Ukraine is laughingly called the “404 nation”. It is a completely collapsed, poverty-stricken wasteland. The Western section is hard-core fascist and has a LGBQ American-backed government of boot-licking egotistical psychopathic personalities.
Yes, the Eastern section speak Russian and are more democratic and wealthier, however any movies to embrace and take over even a portion of the country would become a serious burden on Russia itself. The GDP might take a hit of a good 25% of it’s GDP and stifle any growth that Russia is experiencing for decades.
Simply put, any military adventures into the Ukraine by Russia would hurt and damage Russia.
That is why the idea that Russia is going to invade the Ukraine is just silly, stupid and insane. Only a couch-potato chip munching fat slob American sheeple would believe such a ridiculous narrative.
Now, about those pesky movies…
Everything is set up. Everything is funded. The Mainstream media are out there a howling away. They are screeching and yelling and stamping their feet about war! War! War! The American sheeple are getting tired of the constantly blaring of noise, and the Europeans are no longer amused.
Russia is doing nothing.
So the media has resorted to outright lies. These are becoming more and more numerous on all issues on all fronts.
The latest lie is that China warned Russia not to attack the Ukraine or else.
Of course, this completely infuriated the Chinese who not only denied that anything like this happened, but they told the American news media pushing these lies (Bloomberg, CNN, Yahoo, and others) that if they continue to push such lies they will be banned from China. Not that it would matter much, but the Chinese have a strong belief that actions require consequences.
China is very supportive of Russia. All Russia needs to do is ask, and China will accomidate.
Anyway…
So there’s this major effort to false-flag the Hell out of the Ukraine, and this includes a hard-core hyper media onslaught, manipulation of the EU, and all sorts of pressures and justifications.
Eventually cumulating in the angering of Russia, resulting in a non-ultimatum demaning an answer. It is unique in that it specifically wanted guarantees in written English that America would abide to the documents that it has already signed and agreed to, and stop its provocations aimed at Russia.
The USA gave its response.
The answer was NO.
Bloomberg.
And United States continued to incite, narrate and create a war in the Ukraine. A war that all the participants do not want. But the wealthy oligarchy in New York, and Washington, and Virginia absolutely do.
UPDATE: This article has been finished and ready to be emailed to The Saker, when the news coming from the government of Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics confirmed my observations expressed here.
In my extensive library of e-books, there is a book by Reese Erlich titled Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect. The book outlines the situation developed in Syria by 2014 that was pushed, sponsored, narrated, and propagated by the United States.
In Chapter 11 of the book, “United States, Russia, and Outside Powers” Reese Erlich writes: “Meanwhile, the Obama administration was pursuing a secret military track. The CIA began overseeing arms shipments to the Free Syrian Army no later than June 2012 when it leaked the story to the New York Times. The CIA began directly arming and training rebels in early 2013 (see chapter 5). Proclaiming support for nonviolent resistance while arming rebels was not seen as a contradiction, according to State Department critic Kathy. She said the State was populated with ‘humanitarian interventionists,’ people who favor one or another form of military intervention by claiming it will, in the end, protect civilians. ‘But we never discuss the legality of such attacks, let alone the morality,’ she told me. Controversial policies are sent to the legal department for review. ‘They’ll always find a way to justify whatever policy is decided.’”
The Biden administration was soaked to the brim by Obama’s people and their “expertise.” Let’s say, they are unparalleled in inflicting “pain” on people of targeted nations.
“State Department officials insisted that Syrians would benefit from US policy in the long run. The spokesperson acknowledged that ordinary Syrians were hurt by American economic sanctions, which had caused a massive drop in their standard of living. But, as if admonishing naughty children, the spokesperson told me Uncle Sam would make it up to them. ‘Once the behavior changes, once we have the Assad regime step down, we will make sure this is an environment where Americans can do business.’ There’s an interesting logic here. He assumed that the solution for economic collapse is American business investment. What’s good for American business, apparently, is good for the Syrian people. Similarly, the State Department saw no contradiction between criticizing Assad’s human-rights record and supporting pro-US regimes elsewhere in the region also committing abuse, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The State Department simply assumed that US allies can and will change while enemies will not. The spokesperson explained that allies may abuse human rights, ‘but we work with them.’”
Recalling the standard disclaimer on investment products. “Past performance does not guarantee future results,” with the political operatives teams only one thing is certain. The results for Ukraine will be very different, but the methods are the same.
In the beginning of December, Russia’s Ministry of Defense issued an unheard of warning about the possibility of the false flag attack in Ukraine with someone impersonating the Russian military.
A couple of days later, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had handed the Biden administration demands for the security guarantees, and in another two days the rest of the document was posted on the ministry website. The demand for the security guarantees for Russia from the US and NATO acted as a giant monkey wrench thrown into the spinning wheel of the Western propaganda of the “invasion of Ukraine.”
Claims of “invasion” have been circulating on and off for the past 8 years, and started sounding louder in April of 2021. In November, Zelensky announced that Russia wants to topple his regime. In December, the Russian government published warnings about upcoming false flag attacks and made the diplomatic moves that somewhat confused and wobbled the “invasion” proponents. They only gained some ground by now, which is the end of January.
On Friday, January 28, the DOD and Biden administration announced the “imminent” invasion of Ukraine during a Biden/Zelensky phone conversation. Zelensky disagreed and, counterintuitively, insisted that there wasn’t much proof that the Russian army was going to “invade Ukraine.” According to CNN, the conversation “did not go well.” Zelensky and Biden disagreed about the immediacy of the threat of a “Russian attack on Ukraine.” The White House and Pentagon has been emphatic that they believe the attack could be “imminent.”
The Zerohedge article collected a hilarious confusion of the warmongering CNN coming with war propaganda and then removing it after a few hours and claiming that they were deceived by their source in the Zelensky administration.
So, the cover fall out and we witnessed a giant mix of fear, greed, hatred, russophobia,incompetence, bloodlust, and pure clinical insanity, which constitute the modern American policy-making. Many right, exact, deep and very funny things have been said and written since, but there was something else that I wouldn’t want to go unnoticed.
During his Friday press briefing, Zelensky said something that holds the golden key to the mystery of an “invasion.”
Tucker Carlson included this important segment into his Friday night monologue.
Tucker: This is a slow motion disaster
Here is a short description.
Zelensky sits in a chair on some podium in front of a room full of journalists. The White House says that the conversation between Biden and Zelensky came down to “Russian invasion is imminent,” “Kiev will be sacked,” and “prepare for impact,” and insists that Zelensky asking Biden to stop fear mongering and to turn down the rhetoric never happened.
Zelensky, however, says it did happen:
“We talked to the president. We talked about the same things, about the media and that there has to be a balanced approach. I’m not saying that he is influencing the American media, they are independent, but media policy has to be more balanced. If they want to know what the situation is here in Ukraine they should come to Kiev. Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case. We don’t need this panic!”
Prior, Jen Psaki claimed that the Biden administration had 18 scenarios of “Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Sergey Lavrov responded by saying that 17 scenarios were written by 17 intelligence agencies and one by the DOS staff.
The only thing was certain, it would be a false flag attack, because Russia didn’t have any plans to take over Ukraine.
It’s very expensive, since we would have to feed their population, solve its problems, and ensure its general well-being. All this would be an enormous injustice to us, Russians, since it’s only recently that we started to live better. The economy is growing the fastest ever. Good and fair energy prices in Europe and great prices for our other exports like wheat and fertilizers pay higher pensions and paychecks of doctors, teachers, military and law enforcement, and other federal employees.The government just recently undertook gigantic investments into mega infrastructure projects and mega oil and gas processing plants (source).
It’s beyond stupid and evil to think that after trillions rubles in new investments Russian government should decides it wants to occupy and feed the failed state of Ukraine.
So, the whole thing is just a Biden admin manufactured pretext to impose new illegal trade restrictions that would per their design crush our economy and make us all poor, again.
But, going back to the gold key to the mystery that fell out of Zelensky’s mouth. What scenario will the US use to stage a false flag attack to blame it on Russia?
Here is a spoiler alert.
At 2:37 on the Tacker Carlson video, the image allegedly from Ukraine looks like the black-and-white WWII footage.
Fake war footage
Zelensky said during his interview, “Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case!”
And that’s our Oscar winning scenario of virtual invasion. It was staged and prerecorded and was supposed to be broadcast all over the world.
Last week, some British news channel aired an interview with Ukrainian general Oleksandr Pavliuk who famously said that he has half a million veterans who are ready “to tear Russians apart with their bare hands.” (source)
I couldn’t find this footage again, but if you happen to come across it you will notice a middle aged overweight man in khaki looking like a stuffed sausage or the Michelin Man. He slowly runs across the snowy field,and then appears behind the general, while someone on the background shouting and shooting aimlessly, and a smoke machine in the snow emits dense vapor covering the whole scene with a couple of military trucks and a couple of men hiding behind them. The whole scene is a movie set, and they are filming scenes of a virtual “Russian invasion.”
In Zelensky’s own words: Do we have tanks on the streets? No! The image that the mass media creates is that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people are leaving for places. That’s not the case!
So, when we see news on tanks on the streets in Ukraine, troops on the roads, mass mobilization and people in khaki leaving for places – it’s an image of the “Russian invasion” that western media have created.
Newsweek image of alleged middle-aged “Ukrainian soldiers”.
Borrowed from here:
Ukraine is a very poor country. People there would do anything for money, especially act in a movie.
On Monday, January 31, The head of the People’s Militia Department, Yan Leshchenko, announced that Kiev is preparing staged and filmed stories about the military actions allegedly unleashed by the republics of Donbass and Russia against Ukraine (source)
“Our intelligence obtained reliable information about the development and implementation by Ukrainian special services with the support of Western intelligence agencies of a special information campaign codenamed Crushing Sword. The purpose of this campaign is to mislead the world community and accuse the People’s Republics of Donbass and the Russian Federation of aggression against Ukraine,” Leshchenko quotes the Telegram channel of the People’s Militia of the LPR (source)
Lugansk now has reliable information that Kiev is preparing professionally acted and staged TV stories as part of the campaign. “At the first stage of the information campaign with the beginning of aggression by the Ukrainian Armed Forces the Kiev regime planned to broadcast pre-prepared staged videos on the alleged beginning of military operations against Ukraine by the People’s republics and the Russian Federation,” Leshchenko said.
The Ukrainian authorities organized videos about the residents of Donbass, who allegedly ask “to free them from Russian oppression.” “Kiev is ready to release staged videos on television in which specially trained citizens on behalf of our people will talk about the “horrors of war” and ask “to free them from Russian oppression,” the head of the People’s Militia department informed.
TASS reported that according to Leshchenko, Kiev propagandists want to convince the world community of the legitimacy of the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly liberating Donbass from terrorists. “Ukrainian propagandists intend to demonstrate the successes of the Ukrainian army in allegedly successfully repelling the imaginary aggression of the people’s republics, as well as conducting an offensive on Donbass. According to the plan, the international community and the population of Ukraine will have to make sure of the legality of the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly liberating Donbass from terrorists. The death of civilians in the people’s republics will be presented as the destruction of terrorists,” he said in a statement.
Final Thoughts
The United States War Machine is on auto-pilot and running at full-throttle. It is just plowing ahead and is Hell-bent on creating a war with Asia one way or the other.
False-flag events are set up to start a popping up everwhere, and the American Navy and military forces are all moving about all over the globe surrounding Asia trying to instigate a war.
This week at the Olympics, Putin and Xi Peng will hold a joint statement. It will be optomistic and promising. It will be hopeful. But within that statement, whatever how nice and hopeful it will sound, will be a message that will put a bone-chilling terror down the spines of the Colelctive West. I don’t know what it is, but I am sure that we will find out soon enough.
Just realize that the positive news will have a component that will “blow off” the knee-caps of the United States military empire and it’s EU enablers.
I can’t wait to hear what it is.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Jeeze! There sure are a lot of big changes going on right now. I just cannot keep up with it all. I tell you what; I will need to start mega releasing clusters of articles before they get stale and outdated.
Ok. Perhaps one of the safe “outs” for the United States is to fracture. Get rid of the Federal government and revert to states, clusters of states or communities. The Federal government is a big fucking mess, ruled by technocrats, oligarchs and insane psychopaths. Get rid of them all, or America will die.
It’s pretty obvious. And you know what? That is exactly what is starting to happen…
‘The Constitution is not a suicide pact’ – but it is nearing that deadly threshold in a number of ways: federal debt, unchecked immigration, but most existentially in a lunatic foreign policy.
In its relations with Russia and China especially, but also with regard to Iran, North Korea, and others, the diplomatic/military/intelligence apparatus in Washington City seems driven to ignite dangerous international conflagrations.
‘NATO officials have thumbed their noses at Putin’s concern with Russia’s security. Trump’s National Security Advisor and neocon warmonger John Bolton encourages more provocation of Russia, which as Putin has made clear will result in war.‘Clearly as 2021 comes to an end, there is no intelligence to be found anywhere in the Western World as all vie to show how tough they are with Russia.‘When Putin says Russia has nowhere left to which to retreat, he is telling the idiot West that Russia has reached the extent of its ability to avoid war. “We simply have no room to retreat” means Russia has done all she can do to avoid war and now the Americans must get off Russia’s doorstep.‘Putin is relying on Biden to show awareness and responsibility and to work for peace by acknowledging Russia’s legitimate security concern. But what if Biden is just a figurehead, and the shots are called by the military/security complex who will go for profits despite the risk that Putin will not back down?‘What if Washington’s concern is limited to destabilizing Russia in the interest of US hegemony and Russia’s security is precisely what Washington intends to undermine, not secure.
‘ . . .
‘2022 could . . . be the year the Western world comes to an end in nuclear war.’
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Is it any wonder why so many countries in the world now despise the US?
But this could not be further from the traditional Southern approach to foreign policy.
US Senator Fulbright of Arkansas gave expression to it in some remarks of his during the Vietnam War:
‘If America has a service to perform in the world and I believe it has it is in large part the service of its own example. In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest. This is regrettable indeed for a nation that aspires to teach democracy to other nations, because, as Burke said: “Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” . . .‘There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world. We have the opportunity to set an example of generous understanding in our relations with China, of practical cooperation for peace in our relations with Russia, of reliable and respectful partnership in our relations with Western Europe, of material helpfulness without moral presumption in our relations with the developing nations, of abstention from the temptations of hegemony in our relations with Latin America, and of the all-around advantages of minding one’s own business in our relations with everybody. Most of all, we have the opportunity to serve as an example of democracy to the world by the way in which we run our own society; America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, should be “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” but “the champion and vindicator only of her own.” …
‘If we can bring ourselves so to act, we will have overcome the dangers of the arrogance of power. It will involve, no doubt, the loss of certain glories, but that seems a price worth paying for the probable rewards, which are the happiness of America and the peace of the world.’
US foreign policy for the last several decades bears little resemblance to the Southern ideal of prudent restraint and peaceful, mutually beneficial relations with other countries. Southrons need to ask themselves just how they are benefiting from the policies being promoted by both Republicans and Democrats:
From sanctions that impoverish the innocent populations of various countries;
From drone strikes that kill hundreds of non-combatants;
From non-governmental organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy that serve as front groups for the CIA causing revolutions in northern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, etc.;
From the promotion of the LGBT ideology in socially conservative countries like Uganda and Poland where Christianity still has some hold on the public consciousness;
From bellicose language from scalawags like Sens Cotton and Wicker who never miss a chance to stoke war fever with other countries.
What benefit is the Federal Government Insanity?
Southerners do not benefit one iota from any of that. Yet because of the Yankee propaganda pumped into the South through school textbooks, talk radio, the Heritage Foundation, etc., that the US is the City on a Hill, the indispensable nation chosen and anointed by God to rule the world, she does not object too loudly (if at all) and actually serves in numbers disproportionately higher than her percentage of the total population in the US military.
Prospects for reforming Washington do not look too good. Typically, anyone who tries is either killed (like JFK) or beaten into submission (like Trump). The best option for the South is to leave Washington and its Deep State bureaucrats to their own devices and to develop a foreign policy that serves the people of Dixieland and represents her tradition-friendly culture, one that is not in service to the cartels of Big Ag, Big Pharma, the military-industrial complex, and so on.
The insanity that has gripped Washington, one that does not rule out a first-strike using nuclear weapons, is a danger to the South in the most basic sense of that word – a threat to life itself.
The great need…
The South needs to separate herself from Washington’s madness, expel lunatics like Sen Wicker from office, and send out diplomats who exude both Southern friendliness and trustworthiness, but also hard resolve, to the countries of the world, whether friendly or unfriendly to us at the moment, to cultivate productive relationships, to secure us from the ill-will that the Yankee mindset has attracted to all 50 States.
Whether it is countries with a Southern diaspora like Brazil or a more isolated, insular place like Japan, the South would be far better off with a President, diplomats, etc., who truly reflect the best of Southern culture.
They with their humility and common sense would hopefully be able to gain back the goodwill of many of those whom Yankee arrogance has alienated, allowing Southerners to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and honesty (I Timothy 2:2).
There will be an endless stream of news stories about the 2022 federal elections in the months ahead. But rather than marching dutifully to the polls in November, wouldn’t it make more sense to channel that fervor in a different, more productive direction – for the State Legislatures of the South to hold special sessions in their chambers, hold a vote of no confidence in the federal government, and begin negotiations with that entity so the South will be able to free herself from the fanatical Deep State ‘reign of witches’ permanently?
The breakup is in process…
The breakup is already underway, though it is going so slowly that few seem to recognize it. A few recent examples:
US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has suggested a ‘national divorce’ of the States;
Gov DeSantis of Florida has reinstituted the Florida State Guard that would operate completely independently of the federal government;
Gov Abbott of Texas has recently told the Texas National Guard that he, not Pres Biden, is their commander-in-chief;
Gov Newsom of California has made it known that he will make his State a safe haven for abortion providers should the federal Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade.
This kind of absurd, contradictory, ‘disunited union’ cannot last, nor should it. Better for the South and for any other sane section of the US to get out now before the madmen in Washington start a nuclear war that will get them incinerated in a retaliatory strike.
Opinion and conclusions.
If this happens, then World War III can be avoided.
There are no official results from the meeting in Geneva yet. The US has promised to give the Russians an official answer in writing within a week. The Russians have declared that they have explained the Russian position to their US counterparts in minute details leaving no ambiguity. According to Russian sources, the US position was a “diehard/stubborn” one.Clearly, the War Party in the USA is, at least so far, prevailing. When I listen to the delusional statements of the likes of Blinken, Psaki, Kirby & Co I get the strong feeling that for these people everything is a zero-sum game and that to them an agreement with Russia, any agreement, is simply unthinkable.
A united Asia is ready to flatten the USA. It’s a very tense time.
Now is when American need to stand up and wrest control of the nation from the evil psychopaths in charge. NOW is the time.
NOW.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning 2. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
LDNR authorities have identified the chemical substances US PMCs have brought to the cities of Mariupol, Krasnyi Liman and Avdeevka: botulinum toxin and dibenzoxazepine. These chemical weapon were brought over from the USA by USAF contracted aircraft and are now deployed by 120 US mercenaries.
-False flag aborted in the Ukraine.
Jabber, jabber, jabber from the war-mongers in America about China and Russia. These people are deranged lunatics. And they are somehow delirious believing their invincibility and superiority. They have funded an enormous war machine, and they are pushing, pushing, and pushing towards WAR!
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Just this week Congress passed a $7 billion dollar anti-China propaganda campaign to villainize China and to prevent Chinese news from ever reaching America. To put this in perspective, the 2020 budget of NASA is $20 billion dollars. So it’s roughly one third of the entire space budget of America. That’s how serious the USA is determined to garner the population on a war-footing.
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Why bother? Americans already consider China the enemy. video 5MB
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Fools.
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Here’s an interesting discussion in the American Conservative circles discussing a war with China. It’s illuminating. Not only on the points of view being bantered about, but the lack of understanding on the true realities, and the absolutely horrific consequences involved.
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Read and be enlightened.
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Top American conservatives including AT’s David Goldman recently debated the risks of preparing for war with China
Whether the United States should prepare for war with China – and thereby make war almost inevitable – was the matter of a verbal brawl at one of the largest gatherings of American conservatives, the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, from October 31 to November 2.
It would have been unseemly to have a polite exchange in a hotel ballroom a few miles from Disney World about the desirability of killing millions of people in a nuclear exchange.
So I wasn’t polite.
Although the arguments on both sides are well known, the Orlando debate merited publication of a lengthy edited transcript, for two reasons.
First, the exchange between former Trump adviser and war-hawk Michael Pillsbury on one side, and former Trump National Security Council official Michael Anton and this writer on the other, set the issues in poignant relief.
Second, the audience of conservative activists, the opinion and organizational leaders of the Republican Party, repudiated the war party by a margin of about three to one, by my informal poll of the audience.
Of the informal guess-timation of participants;
75% of the Conservative opposed a war with China.
25% of the Conservatives were neocons in favor of a war with China.
The American right doesn’t want war with China.
That doesn’t mean war won’t come. Christopher Clark’s magisterial account of the outbreak of World War I, The Sleepwalkers, recounts the intellectual corruption and grandiose irresponsibility of the statesmen who stumbled into World War I.
It’s an old story: If one side mobilizes, the other has to mobilize or be defenseless; if one side believes the other is likely to mobilize, it must do so first. Clark proved – contrary to the usual Anglophile account – that it was the Russian mobilization, urged by the French, that started the war.
By the same token, if the United States attempts to force the issue of Taiwan’s independence, China will pre-empt this by seizing the island. If the United States takes military measures – stationing troops on the island, mining the Taiwan Straits – China will have to consider pre-emptive action.
It’s August 1914 all over again, played as farce rather than tragedy. The European powers had existential interests to defend; the United States has nothing to lose but the perception that it can project its power anywhere in the world, including China’s coasts.
The American military wasted US$6 trillion and thousands of lives in misguided nation-building campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, while China built up a massive high-tech defense in and around its coasts.
This weakened America’s strategic position decisively.
The blunderers who vitiated America’s defense will risk war simply to save their reputations. The war hawks have shown scant interest in rising to China’s technological ambition, which presents a real challenge to America’s leading position in the world.
But they will roll the dice on war over issues that do not bear directly on American security.
America is in NO STATE to take on a war against the combined forces of Russia and China.
Compared to them, the sleepwalkers of 1914 were exemplars of enlightened statesmanship.
Transcript
There follows my edit of the transcript of the conference session on China. I have included all the points of substance, leaving out the ancillary discussion in the interest of space.
Video of the event will be available at the conference website.
Pillsbury:The Hundred-Year Marathon [Pillsbury’s best-selling book] was translated by the Chinese military. No royalties, but they had a little ceremony for me. They make fun of Biden. They say Biden is plagiarizing, it’s the Trump administration policy.
Trump loves to say, if Hillary Clinton had won the election, China would be surpassing us now. But it’s not going to happen on my watch. If you’re close watchers of Joe Biden’s TV interviews, four months ago, he said the exact same words.
China wants to surpass us, but it’s not going to happen on my watch. The Chinese reaction to that is to laugh. Because they don’t expect it to come that soon. But when they do surpass us, I think the level of arrogance they showed today is going to be something that we wish for.
When they do believe that they’re superior to us in a number of ways. We will wish that it was 1947 when the Soviet Cold War began, and we did was, we created the CIA by legislation. We created the Defense Department. We created the National Security Council.
There’s not a single new institution in our government to deal with China. I think there should be.
Goldman: We will spend these next few days complaining about how terrible things are. I hear very little discussion of what we need to do about it. My argument is very simple. We’ve done it before. We did it during the Reagan administration. We did it during the Kennedy administration, we did it under Franklin Roosevelt.
We need to rebuild the American economy and we can only do that with a visionary strategy that galvanizes the imagination of Americans like the Kennedy moon-shot, the Reagan SDI.
The numbers show that the Trump policy towards China was a catastrophic failure. We’re importing now more than 30% more from China than we did in January 2018, when Trump imposed tariffs.
And as for technology suppression?
China’s built 70% of the world’s 5G networks and is proceeding to build the applications on top of that, which constitute the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We can do better than China. We’re better equipped to innovate than China.
But we’re not because we’re crushed by a technocratic elite which has sucked the marrow out of the United States economy and generated enormous wealth doing things that, for the most part, harm us. Nothing short of an intervention by the federal government, namely an industrial policy, will turn that around.
That’s not a classically liberal view of things. Industrial policies are dangerous. They lead to rent-seeking behavior, corruption and too much state power. But that’s what you do in a war, and we’ve got the economic equivalent of a war going on.
The thing that worries me the most is the knuckleheads who spent $6 trillion on forever wars and gutted our military by frittering away our resources. If we’d spent a 10th of that on high-tech weaponry, we wouldn’t be worrying about China’s hyper-velocity missiles or anything else like that.
They will steer us into a confrontation with China that will lead to a war that nobody can win.
John Bolton is the most dangerous lunatic roaming the streets of the United States right now.
If you try to force the independence of Taiwan, any Chinese government that wants to rule China will use military action, Communist or not.
The Chinese Communist Party is Communist the same way the mafia is Catholic. They take it very seriously. But it has very little practical importance for running a Chinese empire. You have to suppress rebel provinces. The only thing we can do with Taiwan is to maintain strategic ambiguity, raise the price of the Chinese taking it by force, which we have no means to stop at this point short of a nuclear war.
We should dissuade them from doing it, maintain Taiwanese democracy and walk the fine line.
John Bolton (on the other hand) would call the question, and that gets a lot of people killed.
John Bolton
If you don’t believe me, read Admiral Stavridis’ marvelous thriller 2034. Spoiler alert: We blow up a bunch of their cities. They blow up a bunch of our cities and we’re back to square one.
Now let me talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is what’s really critical here. Wars are not won by stealing data, they are not won by spies, they are won by logistics in depth and the willingness to prevail. The first industrial revolution began when James Watt sold his first commercial steam engine in 1776.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution began when China responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by using artificial intelligence applied to massive data sets to predict potential outbreaks. They are now proceeding to roll out the technologies associated with this. This is the real science fiction stuff we’re talking about – 5G permitting groups of industrial robots to communicate on the shop floor and program themselves.
Smart logistics allow individual objects to be tracked from mine to factory to warehouse to ship back to warehouse to truck loaded onto autonomous vehicles and controlled all the way. It allows AI servers to optimize urban traffic and match every passenger and package to a conveyance.
It allows sensors at the base of soybean plants to communicate with drones that deliver fertilizer and pesticides and direct autonomous tractors to harvest them. We’re talking about an explosion of productivity like that of the first and second industrial revolutions.
The main thing the Chinese stole from us was the great idea of the Reagan Revolution that you can have dual-use technologies, which both give you button guns and butter. They foster civilian productivity. They pay for themselves 10 times over, just like the Apollo program did, just like the Strategic Defense Initiative did.
Every single invention of the digital age. No exceptions started with the DARPA project. They were all funded by the Department of Defense.
The Chinese have stolen the American approach. They want to be Reagan in the Cold War against the sclerotic Soviet Union. Now, they’re not as good at it as we are.
My argument is we have nothing to learn; we only need to remember. We know all these things because we’ve done every single one of them.
We only have to dust off the old ideas and get the band back together, and what I put to you is that the conservative movement needs a part of a positive program, a set of solutions to galvanize the American people, capture their imagination, as Kennedy did when he pointed to the Moon, as Reagan did when he promised to defend the homeland against enemy ballistic missiles.
We need a positive view. We need a can-do approach, and we need to found it on the proven track record of the United States of America in pioneering the future for the world.
Anton: I’m just going to go through a couple of historical points to put this in context. In 1842, the Chinese ceded Hong Kong island to the British in perpetuity – in perpetuity. The Chinese regime at the time of Imperial China greatly resented it. And that resentment carried over through Republican China to Communist China, National, etc.
Why is this important?
This is something that was a thorn in the side of the succession of China as a civilization, not of one regime, not of the communist regime of China for 150 years. It bothered them very greatly. They look forward to the day when they could get it back. They were patient and they got it back.
Without conflict, without much of a struggle, with just some gnashing of teeth and hair, pulling and sighing and crying by the British, but they got it back.
A couple of quotes.
“To win without fighting is best.”
Some of you may remember recognize this.
The second one is:
“To destroy the enemy is not the acme of skill; to capture what you want from the enemy, whether that’s a city, a fortress, a ship, an army, that is the acme of skill.”
Those are both from Sun Tzu, a Chinese classic written about 200 BC. This very well encapsulates the Chinese strategy, I would say, with regard to Hong Kong and with regard to Taiwan.
Taiwan is a similar thorn in the psyche of China.
This would be the case, no matter what the regime in Beijing were. It could be, you know, the neocons’ fantasy of a liberal democratic China, and they would still really care about getting Taiwan back. It’s central to the regime’s conception of its territorial national integrity…
One very firm demand of the Chinese government on the international community is Taiwan can never be a full member of an international organization for which statehood is a member and as a requirement, and they make it very plain that they’ll go to war over that.
They’re very, very clear about this.
An Article five guarantee in the NATO charter, for instance, that is a treaty requirement that the United States has got to go to a nuclear war in defense of a place. [Our agreement with Taiwan] is a commitment of sorts. The full extent of it and what it legally obligates us to do is a bit ambiguous compared to an actual mutual defense treaty signed by both sides.
This comes up a lot, especially lately, because we are told constantly that crisis is brewing in the Taiwan Straits.
China’s been patient.
Patience may be running out.
Maybe they’ll try to do something soon.
What we’ve seen now is a pretty dramatic shift toward I still have a bipartisan consensus on China, but now it’s a bipartisan consensus to sort of beat up on them rhetorically not to take any actual action as far as I can see, except some of the things we talked about.
But what, where that rhetoric leads is, you know, we’re obligated to do something about Taiwan and it would be a stain on the national honor and so on and so forth.
And so if something happens, we’ve got to get into a fight.
China’s preference is still to take Taiwan without fighting for it. Time is on their side. Some are saying, some people who claim to know, are saying, Oh no, no, they’re getting impatient and they’re going to … they’re going to do something shortly.
I just have no basis to evaluate that.
But based on historical precedent, I think the Chinese would certainly like to do exactly what they did with regard to Hong Kong, tipped the balance of strategic power, economic power, political power so much against the possibility of continued Taiwanese independence that public opinion in Taiwan comes to accept the notion that we just have to make the best deal we can make.
And then you win without fighting.
You know, a nation of 24 million can only have so big a military and especially against a nation of 1.4 billion … China’s been building up [its military] for decades. The Taiwan-American combination has not caught up either in terms of sheer numbers and certainly not in terms of technology.
So that’s a way of winning without fighting if you have two or three decades to build up so much force on one side that the other side just looks at it and goes, “I can’t win that fight,” then the fight doesn’t happen unless the other side is delusional or crazy brave.
And the last point I will raise, I just want you to think about this.
I’ll tell you the last time a United States aircraft carrier was sunk. It was the battle of Midway, the USS Yorktown, June of 1942. Actually, we did lose an aircraft carrier last year, not a fleet carrier, a smaller carrier, you know why?
Because it burned in San Diego Harbor and the navy couldn’t figure out how to put out the fire.
USS Bonhomme Richard. A compete loss.
And they had to scrap the ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard. Look it up.
The navy crashed four ships in 2017. Read the official reports from the Department of the Navy and the Congressional investigations on those crashes. They were marvels of esoteric writing to try to dodge the cause of what happened, while somehow revealing it between the lines.
If you’re Taiwan and you’re counting on the United States to defend you, what conclusion did you draw from Afghanistan this summer? Did you get the conclusion that here is a great power that knows what it’s doing, that keeps its promises, and that can execute the things that it wants to do?
American military flee Afghanistan just like they fled Vietnam.
Plausibly, if not certainly, the Chinese have had an ability to sink a fleet carrier for the last decade.
And now… ask yourself how the nation would take it.
Right now, there seems to be a massive amount of group think. We’re only allowed to think about this one way. Only one way.
Nobody is allowed to bring up any of the counterfactuals or any, you know, any other outlying considerations.
And when policy is made on that basis, horrible blunders and catastrophes result.
So before the United States commits itself to some policy or before we, whoever we broadly understood as being in this room are right of center conservatives, intellectuals, nationalists want the best for our country, who want the best for our military, who want to maintain our alliance structure with credibility.
But before we commit ourselves to a policy, are we in this room?
Take a stand in favor of X or against Y and make recommendations that other people may read and listen to.
We should be at least thinking about all of these considerations and, in my view, the conversation as it has. I don’t mean this conversation. I mean, the broad conversation on Taiwan has taken insufficient account of the things that I mentioned and others.
Goldman: The most important fact about any country is its people. Taiwan, according to the CIA World Factbook, has the lowest birth rate of any political entity in the world … China does have a demographic crisis, but Japan, South Korea and especially Taiwan are much worse.
So if you simply. Kick the can down the road, maintain strategic ambiguity. What the Chinese will get if they eventually get Taiwan is a bunch of old people. It’s simply, in my view, not worth having a nuclear war over.
The ideal situation is to maintain the status quo as long as possible. Anything else means a war, and the possible loss of American cities. I ultimately don’t care about China. I care about the United States of America. I’m a nationalist and I want what’s best for us.
We can’t abandon Taiwan because it makes us look weak and we lose important economic advantages and leverage against China. We can’t force the issue and start a war.
The Chinese have hundreds of anti-ship missiles.
Michael Pillsbury and I have something in common. He for many years, and I briefly, worked for a great man at the Pentagon, Andrew Marshall, head of the Office of Net Assessment.
Andy told me in 2013 that the Chinese missiles could (and would) sink an American carrier.
Anton: I think the core answer, it is the best outcome is the status quo for as long as possible because any attempt to change the status quo will be worse than the status quo.
There are only two alternatives to the status quo.
One is Taiwanese independence. Well, Taiwanese independence will start a war. Taiwan becoming part of China would be net bad for us. Obviously, if it becomes a part of China through military action, that’s worse than if they just make a deal.
So for as long as the status quo can be maintained, that’s, unfortunately, the best possible scenario. And I just say unfortunately, because it’s an inherently unstable scenario, and it’s also by its very definition, it’s not permanent. The status quo isn’t going to last forever, so let’s stretch it out for as long as we can, and that’s unfortunately about the best we can do.
Pillsbury: President Trump once asked me, How did we used to defend Taiwan? He saw me as the in-house historian who knew all this ancient stuff. Nobody else in the room knew.
So I finally spoke up.
We used to have atom bombs there. We used to have them attached to jet fighters ready to go to hit the mainland with the Chinese made sure that Kissinger took them out in ’74. We used to have a treaty with a garrison and 30,000 troops and a war planning unit underground in Taipei.
Now it’s an art center and a Mongolian barbecue restaurant …
So what do the paranoid group in charge today say when they hear someone like Michael Anton say, oh, we can’t get it in a war, you know, they think that this is American deception.
Of course, the Americans are going to get into a war, which is why they’ve been increasing the deployments and we are moving closer to a nuclear war with China.
It’s not just me saying this, quite a few other people inside the government are saying this as well.
The head of our strategic command in charge of all our nuclear forces, he’s given two interviews. He says the Chinese are engaging in a strategic breakout of their nuclear weapons, including ICBMs, which they are doubling or tripling.
This is the four-star admiral who commands our nuclear forces.
Quite a few other people are talking this way – very different from Michael Anton. They’re more like Churchill. Bill Buckley, the long tradition of Americans like Barry Goldwater …
So I’m going to have to go home to Washington.
So yes, I went to the conservatism conference. A bunch of the people there on the panel said surrender Taiwan. We don’t want to go to war with China. That’s appeasement. Michael and I should clarify his remarks in my humble opinion.
Anton: If they can sink an aircraft carrier and if the only way to stop an invasion of Taiwan is to deploy the forward-deployed aircraft carrier…
and maybe send one or two others out there, which as far as I know, is the only way for the United States to effectively defend the island if the Chinese decide to invade it and they sink one of these 12 to 14 billion dollar behemoths with 6,500 men on board.
What’s the US response going to be at that point?
Pillsbury: Well, we could turn to you and say, I surrender.
Anton: What would you do if you were either the secretary of defense, the president, the head of a Pacific Command and sitting there in Pearl Harbor?
Pillsbury: I’ve been working on this for 30 years. More recently, the US has gotten a much more detailed picture of what it could do.
Exactly which targets inside China could be struck.
Exactly which targets inside China could be struck?
What would happen the first morning?
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New York “concrete jungle” cleared of the underbrush.
More and more work is being done on both sides about how a war would happen and both the Chinese and American military have come to a conclusion.
It would be a long war.
Okay, maybe two or three years – I haven’t read.
There’s a brand new book by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon under Trump [Elbridge Colby’s The Strategy of Denial, featured in a June 2021 Asia Times webinar].
There’s a whole chapter on how to recapture Taiwan after it’s been partially taken by the Chinese military.
This is the state of the art thinking.
There’s a new piece of legislation, the Taiwan Defense Act … They say, please, Pentagon, give us a plan for how to avoid a fait accompli taking place on Taiwan. The Pentagon is drafting their response.
We’re moving closer to a war.
It doesn’t help for you to tell conservatives, oh, if we lose an aircraft carrier, what are we going to do then? What would Winston Churchill say?
Goldman: What, Winston Churchill? Just before the fall of Singapore in 1942, according to Andrew Roberts, Winston Churchill said in the event of war “the Japanese would fold up like the Italians because there were the wops of the Far East.”
Winston Churchill, when it came to Asia, was an absolute idiot, and we bailed him out. He was as stupid as Nicholas II who lost the Russian fleet at Tsushima [in 1905].
Bridge Colby has been a dear friend for 20 years who is now hallucinating about what the United States might do to take Taiwan back.
This is crazy.
Anton: Following the logic of what you said – because I haven’t read whatever STRATCOM put out – I have read certain analyses: not even analysis. There’s speculations that the Chinese are increasing the size of the nuclear arsenal in this underground network of tunnels that we can’t follow and so on.
The official estimate that we have some confidence in is that the Chinese nuclear arsenal is at least 300 warheads, right?
None of which have to be air-dropped anymore.
That means all [delivered by] ICBM hyper-velocity AI-guided missiles. And if you read their doctrine, unlike ours, they formally take a doctrine of minimal deterrence.
That is to say, they have no kind of nuclear warfighting doctrine at all.
They just have city killers.
And if they feel that the territorial integrity of China or the survival of the state is at stake, they’re willing to use those 300 missiles or some portion of them on American cities. The largest 300 American cities would be blasted into radioactive rubble.
The largest surviving American city would be New Bedford, Massachusetts. With it's five gas stations, and two strip malls. -MM
In fact, once as I’m sure you remember in the far-off year of 1996 on one of the more tense moments in the Taiwan Strait, a Chinese general was quoted as saying, “I don’t think the Americans will do anything at the end of the day. They won’t want to trade Los Angeles for Taipei.”
Their nuclear arsenal is now triple what it was.
And they’re going on a more offensive posture with nuclear weapons and this thing ends up going to nuclear war.
How that fits into the seeming “recommendation” you just gave, I have to admit, being somewhat dim, I don’t see because it would seem to make the danger greater.
And I also would ask: What do you think the American people’s response to losing a fleet carrier would be?
My own estimate is it would be the greatest psychological shock we’ve had in a generation, arguably greater than 9/11.
Unquestionably, getting one single city nuked would be the greatest psychological shock the American nation has ever had in its history.
So how do we deal with something like that, given that Taiwan is orders of magnitude more important to China, and they’re willing to do that over this, as they have said, than it is to us?
From a Chinese point of view, Taiwan is like the US "Statue of Liberty". Destroy it and the Chinese would sacrifice their first born in revenge.
From an American point of view Taiwan is a news item that fits in the bottom of a news feed. Nestled somewhere between a Viagra ad and a cute cat video. -MM
Well, I’m going to be the dove here and say that it’s possible to avoid a nuclear war, whether it be over Taiwan or any other place.
I’d kind of prefer to do that.
If that makes me an outlier, I’m at least I’m in good company with that other famous nuclear dove named Ronald Reagan.
Goldman: [to the audience] Who volunteers to be in the first city that gets nuked? Any takers?
No. Not me!
Pillsbury: One wonderful book shocked the hell out of me. It came out of the Hoover Institution 1962. It’s called Wall Street and Hitler. It’s by a professor who went through the Nuremberg war trials after the war.
I didn’t know Henry Ford’s photo was in Hitler’s office.
I didn’t know the Nazis gave prizes to different American businessmen.
I didn’t know that the Nazis knew they lacked synthetic oil production and that they got the technology from America.
It’s a long book and it goes to in great detail what Wall Street was willing to do even as late as 1938-1939. We had a huge debate about getting involved in Europe … A big group in our country in ’38, ’39 wanted to surrender to Hitler – for lack of a better word; surrender.
Anton: What are they trying to do? I mean, the Soviet Union had to be contained because the Soviet Union was very explicitly an expansionist power.
We know the Chinese would like to expand and take Taiwan.
I’m not aware of the Chinese wanting to expand and take other people’s territory.
They want to exert dominance in East Asia and in the western Pacific, and some of that dominance they will exert in ways that will be deleterious to American interests.
That’s irrespective of our ability to be able to prevent and stop that. But I think there are certain things we could probably be doing better that could push back against some of those influences. But it’s not as if unless, you know, Michael Pillsbury could tell me differently.
Like the Chinese after Taiwan, they’re going to invade South Korea and they’re going to invade Japan, and then they’re going to invade Vietnam.
I don’t know. I don’t get the sense of that from them, nor in the sources that I read. Granted, I can’t read Mandarin. They don’t say that they want to do that.
Pillsbury: Specifically, specifically on Japan and in India … the Chinese think this is part of the key.
They hope the Americans don’t do it.
The Japanese stick to 1% of their GDP on defense, which is very, very low. Maybe that will double to 2% over the coming years.
That’s an alarm sign to the Chinese.
The Indians want to. They’re fiercely independent. The British poured poison in their ears as they left that the Americans are going to be a new colonial power.
You know, we don’t have a treaty with them. So we’ve got a long way with the Indians. We have quite a few military exercises … So slowly, we’re improving our military cooperation with India, other countries in the region.
Trump picked up the idea of the Quad as a magic word. Japanese say they invented it. Biden attacked Trump. You don’t, you know, you’re not seeking help from our allies. I think it was not true.
But the Quad, even under Biden, is starting to increase its consultations, mainly about China. So things are moving in the direction of your question.
Some videos describing what is not being said
It’s like a discussion over tea and crackers. Oh “Taiwan is sort of important to the Chinese, well we can convince them…” In your fucking wet dreams. The Chinese no longer has any tolerance for the United States BULLSHIT. Just like Putin has. These jackasses have no idea who they are dealing with.
I am gonna show you all.
History
Burned into the minds and soul of China. If you all think that China will allow an invasion by any one for any reason, you are very, VERY mistaken. They will rip apart your cities, gut your nations, and then burn it to the ground. They are a serious nation that does not play games.
Atrocities by the Japanese occupation forces 1937. video 6MB
Actual photos, actual sound recordings. Nasty shit. video 11MB
Atrocities by the Japanese inflicted on the Chinese. video 20MB
The Chinese are not individualists. they fight for their community! video 6MB
Serious. Dangerous. Well equipped. Superbly trained. video 3MB
Very dangerous. Not a music video. look at the equipment. video 6MB
You all think that American military can airlift and sea transport forces into Chinese waters safely to fight this formidable army? video 3MB
Reread the dialog
They are talking about a “long drawn out war” with China.
What would actually happen?
The moment a war starts, the USA GDP will fall to under 50% of what it is now. And that is just if there is another “regional police action”. Not a full-borne war. A full on war, would collapse the GDP to a fraction of what it is now. Perhaps in the single digits. Think 2% to 6%.
As such, inflation would skyrocket, and the value of the USD would approach zero. Think $25,000 for a can of Pepsi. That’s pretty pricy even for you Pepsi lovers out there.
99% of all medicines used in the United States come from China. How is America going to deal with providing hospitals medications, and supplies? That means ZERO MEDICINE. When a full 65% of the American population is on some kind of medicine, and you take that away… whether pain medicine, anti-depression medicine, heart or high blood pressure medicine, anti-biotics, aspirin, tums stomach medicine… what will happen? My guess is “Zombie apocalypse”.
How are the people going to react to all this? Bare store shelves? Insane prices for gas and heating oil? Electricity? And periodic internet if any? They will be very frustrated, angry and fearful. And they all will have lots and lots of guns…
America is a mess domestically. You cannot isolate the long drawn out fighting and overlook how it will affect the domestic population.
Any war with China is a war against Russia and China together. There is no fucking way that America is able to fight TWO (x2) above-peer military forces, let alone one. The result would be the destruction of ALL 13 core aircraft carriers, all major naval bases and staging locations.
How will the American public react to that.
And knowing so…
Conclusion
…America would “push the big red nuclear button”. But it would be too late. American cites would already be rubble.
Funny how NO ONE is addressing this very clear and always present danger. My guess is that they are all collectively idiots of the lowest caliber. And I am being generous.
Consider this memo to all the employees at McDonald’s.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
With the December 2021 “Ultimatum” by Russia clear in mind, what will be the consequences if President Biden, and the United States does not take this message seriously? What can we expect to happen? Well this article explores this scenario, as all indications are that they are continuing to play “their games”;
Say one thing, do the complete opposite, and narrate bullshit all over the many, many propaganda outlets that they control.
It might play well in the American heartland, but China and Russia are both DEADLY SERIOUS. This time it’s when “the bullet hits the bone”.
The American Response…
On the surface, we see [1] a signed pledge that the Untied States will not target either Russia or China with it’s nuclear missiles.
Anti-nuclear use agreement.
And, you do know, this is meaningless, though it has got a lot of positive press.
Funny how the “news” fails to acknowledge that the United States has a history of repeatedly breaking contracts, agreements and pledges at will. And also that there’s no verification put into place, or changes in American Geo-political military movements or posturings. Just words. Very well promoted words. But meaningless words with no verification systems, or evidence of any further physical actions.
Then we have [2] a color revolution in Kazakhstan. Which is a big nation wedged and jutting into both Russia and China. On The Saker, Andrei suggests that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that this is a United States backed color revolution. I disagree.
[2.1] It is the RESPONSIBILITY of the leadership of both Russia and China to assume that it is. Whether this is true or not.
[2.2] Almost ALL of the “color revolutions” in the last 100 years were instigated by the United States. If you can find examples of pure “grass roots” movements, I’d like to how how this is not instigated, but rather a true and real “grass roots” movement.
[2.3] Videos of weapons drop off locations, and the collection of weapons by trained insurgents points to organization at a very high level of involvement.
The 350 pages long report recommended certain steps to be taken by the U.S. to contain Russia. As its summary says:
Recognizing that some level of competition with Russia is inevitable, this report seeks to define areas where the United States can do so to its advantage. We examine a range of nonviolent measures that could exploit Russia’s actual vulnerabilities and anxieties as a way of stressing Russia’s military and economy and the regime’s political standing at home and abroad. The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose, although they might contribute to both. Rather, these steps are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, leading Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage, and causing Russia to overextend itself militarily or economically or causing the regime to lose domestic and/or international prestige and influence.
RAND lists economical, geopolitical, ideological and informational as well as military measures the U.S. should take to weaken Russia.
Since the report came out the first four of the six ‘geopolitical measures’ listed in chapter 4 of the report have been implemented.
The U.S. delivered lethal weapons to Ukraine, it increased its support for ‘rebels’ in Syria. It attempted a regime change in Belarus and instigated a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The U.S. is now implementing measure 5 which aims to ‘reduce Russia’s influence in Central Asia’.
Kazakhstan, Russia’s southern neighbor, was part of the Soviet Union. It is a mineral rich, landlocked country three times the size of Texas but with less than 20 million inhabitants. A significant part of its people are Russians and the Russian language is in common use. The country is an important link in the strategic Belt and Road Initiative between China and Europe.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union the country has been ruled by oligarchic family clans – foremost the Nazarbayevs. As the CIA Worldfactbook notes:
Executive branch
chief of state: President Kasym-Zhomart TOKAYEV (since 20 March 2019); note - Nursultan NAZARBAYEV, who was president since 24 April 1990 (and in power since 22 June 1989 under the Soviet period), resigned on 20 March 2019; NAZARBAYEV retained the title and powers of "First President"; TOKAYEV completed NAZARBAYEV's term, which was shortened due to the early election of 9 June 2019, and then continued as president following his election victory
Over the last decade there have been several uprisings (2011, 2016 and 2019) in Kazakhstan. These were mostly caused by uneven distribution of income from its minerals including oil and gas. The oligarchs in the capital of Astana / Nur-Sultan live well while the provinces which produce the minerals, like Mangistauskaya in the south-west, have seen few developments.
Recently the price for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), used by many cars in Kazakhstan, went up after the government had liberalized the market. This caused another round of country wide protests:
The string of rallies that has torn through Kazakhstan since January 2 began in the western oil town of Zhanaozen, ostensibly triggered by anger over a sudden spike in the price of car fuel. Similar impromptu gatherings then quickly spread to nearby villages in the Mangystau region and then in multiple other locations in the west, in cities like Aktau, Atyrau and Aktobe. By January 4, people had come out onto the streets in numbers in locations many hundreds of kilometers away, in the southern towns of Taraz, Shymkent and Kyzyl-Orda, in the north, in the cities of Uralsk and Kostanai, as well as in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, the capital, among other places.
Few saw scenes as fiery as those in Almaty, though.
Clashes in Almaty continued throughout the night into January 5. After being dispersed by police from Republic Square, part of the crowd headed around two kilometers downhill, to another historic location in the city, Astana Square, where the seat of government used to be located in Soviet times.
While there is little reliable way to gauge the scale of the demonstrations, a combination of on-the-ground reporting and video footage appears to indicate that these protests may be even larger than those that brought the country to a near-standstill in 2016.
While the grievances that sparked the first rallies in Zhanaozen were to do with fuel prices, the sometimes rowdy demonstrations that have followed appear to be of a more general nature. Chants of “shal ket!” (“old man go!”), usually understood as a reference to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who continues to wield significant sway from behind the scenes, have been heard at many of the demos.
The protests escalated soon with gangs of armed protesters taking control of government buildings and setting them on fire. There were also attempts to take control of radio and TV stations as well as the airport. Police, which generally did little to intervene, were gunned down.
The actions in Almaty, the country’s largest city and former capital, are certainly not spontaneous reactions by a crowd of poor laborers but controlled actions by well trained groups of armed ‘rebels’.
Peter Leonard @Peter__Leonard - 9:18 UTC · 6 Jan 2022
Kazakhstan: Very important and intriguing detail with strong shades of Kyrgyzstan 2020. Peaceful people initiate rallies, but shady and violent individuals turn up to sow trouble, and it is never remotely clear who they are or where they came from /1 https://t.co/qYSlUUrMVx
From one account I heard, a similar dynamic played out in Almaty on Wednesday morning. A relatively small and mild gathering formed on Republic Square, opposite city hall. All of a sudden hundreds of extremely aggressive men turned up, threatening all and sundry #Kazakhstan /2
They threatened and attacked journalists standing nearby, ordering anybody who took photographs to delete the images. It was clearly this cohort that was responsible for much of the destruction. And it is a mystery (to me) who they were /3
We have seen similar formations during the U.S. instigated uprisings in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Belarus.
NEXTA, the U.S. financed regime change media network in Poland which last year directed the failed color revolution attempt in Belarus, announced the U.S. demands:
NEXTA @nexta_tv - 13:52 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
Demands of the Protesters in #Kazakhstan
1. Immediate release of all political prisoners
2. Full resignation of president and government
3. Political reforms:
Creation of a Provisional Government of reputable and public citizens. Withdrawal from all alliances with #Russia
A more reliable source confirms these:
Maxim A. Suchkov @m_suchkov - 14:43 UST · Jan 5, 2022
The list of demands of protestors in #Kazakhstan that's been circulating is interesting, to put it mildly.
While most demands focus on bolstering social & economic support & countering corruption points #1, 7, 10, 13, 16 expose the roots of protest & who's driving them
#1 demands that #Kazakhstan should leave Eurasian Economic union.
#7 demands legalization of polygamy "for certain groups of the population" & prohibition on marriage with foreigners
#10 demands independence for Mangystau region &^that revenues of oil companies remain in Mangystau
Caveat: this list been circulating a lot on telegram - could be fake or not representative of what protestors want, thou it appears protestors are a diverse group that includes genuinely disgruntled people, political manipulators, "prof revolutionaries" (that were in UKR & BEL), etc
The government of Kazakhstan has since lowered the LPG prices. On January 5 President Tokayev relived the ‘First President’ Nazarbayev of his position as chairman of the Security Council and promised to act tough on armed protesters.
Kazakhstan is part of the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On the morning of January 5 Tokayev had a phone call with the presidents of Russia and Belarus. He has mobilized airborne units of the armed forces of Kazakhstan. On the evening of January 5 he requested support from the CSTO against the ‘foreign directed terrorists’ which are fighting the security forces.
Russia, Belarus and other CSTO members have dedicated quick reaction forces reserved for such interventions. These will now be mobilized to regain government control in Kazakhstan. Russian CSTO forces are currently on their way to Kazakhstan. Belorussian and Armenian troops will follow soon.
They are in for some tough time:
Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ ❄ @CalibreObscura - 19:50 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
#Kazakhstan: Captured arms from the National Security Committee (equivalent to Russian FSB) building by protestors in #Almaty: At least 2 PG-7V projectiles, possible boxed Glock pistol & (possibly) more in numerous scattered crates, various kit.
Anti-Armour capability in 48hrs...
During the last decades the U.S. and its allies had been relatively quiet about the dictatorial leadership in Kazakhstan.
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 14:18 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
NATO's cheerleading corner of FSU "experts" already working hard to spin Kazakhstan uprisings as somehow Putin's fault or indictment of Putin—but note how quiet our media-NGO complex has been the past 20 years re: the regime's human rights abuses, corruption & "authoritarianism"
Chevron is the largest oil producer in Kazakhstan and the former British prime minister Tony Blair has previously been giving advice to then President Nursultan Nazarbayev on how to avoid an uproar over dead protesters:
In a letter to Nursultan Nazarbayev, obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Blair told the Kazakh president that the deaths of 14 protesters “tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress” his country had made.
Mr Blair, who is paid millions of pounds a year to give advice to Mr Nazarbayev, goes on to suggest key passages to insert into a speech the president was giving at the University of Cambridge, to defend the action.
Times however are different now as Kazakhstan has continued to strengthen its relations with Russia and China.
The CIA offshoot National Endowment for Democracy is financing some 20 ‘civil society’ regime change programs in Kazakhstan with about $50,000 per annum each. The involved organizations currently seem to be mostly quiet but are a sure sign that the U.S. is playing a role behind the scenes. On December 16 details of upcoming demonstrations were announced by the U.S. embassy in Kazakhstan.
It is likely that this pre-planned Central Asia part of the ‘Extending Russia’ program has been implemented prematurely as a response to Russia’s recent ultimatum with regards to Ukraine and NATO. Its sole purpose is to unbalance the Russian leadership in Moscow by diverting its attention towards the south.
I however believe that Russia has prepared for such eventualities. They will not affect its plans and demands.
What is difficult to discern though is what is really happening behind the scenes in Astana/Nur-Sultan. Has Tokayev, who was previously seen as a mere puppet of Nazarbayev, really replaced him? His control of the security forces is somewhat in doubt:
Liveuamap @Liveuamap - 19:18 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
Tokayev dismissed the head of his security guard Saken Isabekov. Also, the President dismissed the Deputy Head of the State Security Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan from his post
But the outcome of the whole game is quite predictable:
Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled - 14:31 UTC · Jan 5, 2022
The grim likelihood, given all the various "revolutions" in the FSU the past 20 years, is that Kazakhstan's street protests [will be] instrumentalized by a powerful clan to replace the ruling oligarchy with a new oligarchy.
The CSTO troops which are now landing in Almaty will take a few days to end the rebellion. The outcome is not in doubt.
Moscow, not Washington DC, will have a big say in who will come out at the top.
It is quite possible (but not guaranteed) that the results of the whole affair will, like the failed U.S. regime change attempts in Belarus, not weaken but strengthen Russia:
Dmitri Trenin @DmitriTrenin - 7:57 UTC · 6 Jan 2022
#Kazakhstan is another test, after #Belarus, of RUS ability to help stabilize its formal allies w/o alienating their populations. As 1st action by CSTO since founding in 1999, it is major test for bloc. Lots of potential pitfalls around, but can be big boon if Moscow succeeds.
And because of that…
Russian troops formerly on the Ukraine border are now being moved into Kazakhstan.
What great luck for the United States.
What a coincidence!
So there you have it.
There’s a very high probability that the United States continues to play Geo-Poltitical “games”. And it’s a dangerous game that they are playing. On the surface, say the nice things, run the “news” media machine talking about wonderful futures and rainbows, meanwhile the bad stuff continues unabated.
Here’s a couple of articles that discuss this matter…
A Surprise Russian Ultimatum: New Draft Treaties To Roll Back NATO
The release a couple of days ago on the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs website of its draft treaties to totally revise the European security architecture has been picked up by our leading mainstream media. The New York Times lost no time posting an article by its most experienced journalists covering Russia, Andrew Kramer and Steven Erlanger: “Russia Lays Out Demands for a Sweeping New Security Deal With NATO.” For its part, The Financial Times brought together its key experts Max Seddon in Moscow, Henry Foy in Brussels and Aime Williams in Washington to concoct “Russia publishes “red line” security demands for NATO and US.”
Both flagships of the English language print media correctly identified the main new feature of the Russian initiative, encapsulated by the word “demands.” However, they did not explore the “what if” question, how and why these “demands” are being presented de facto if not by name as an “ultimatum, as I consider them to be.
The newspaper articles themselves are weak tea. They summarize the points set out in the Russian draft treaties. But they are incapable of providing an interpretation of what the Russian initiative means for the immediate future of us all.
Normally they would be hand fed such analysis by the U.S. State Department and Pentagon. However, this time Washington has declined to comment, saying it is now studying the Russian treaties and will have its answer in a week or so. In the meantime, America’s reliable lap dog Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, saw no need for reflection and flatly rejected the Russian demands as unacceptable. The “front line” NATO member states in the Baltics also reflexively vetoed any talks with the Russians on these matters.
However, even the FT and NYT understand what Mr. Stoltenberg’s opinion or Estonia’s opinion is worth and held back on giving their own thumbs up or down. They both analyze the draft treaties primarily in connection with the current massing of Russian troops at the border of Ukraine. They assume that if the Russians receive no satisfaction on their demands they will use this to justify an invasion. We are told that in such an eventuality a new Cold War will set in on the Old Continent, as if that will be the end of all the fuss.
In part, the problem with these media is that their journalist and editorial teams are tone deaf as regards things Russian. They are insensitive to nuance and incapable of seeing what is new here in content and still more in the presentation of the Russian texts. In part, the weakness is attributable to the common problem of journalists: their time horizon goes back to what happened last week. They lack perspective.
In what I present below, I will attempt to address these shortcomings. I will not invoke historical time, which would possibly take us back seventy years to the start of the first Cold War or even thirty years to the end of that Cold War, but will restrict my commentary to the time surrounding the last such Russian call for treaties to regulate the security environment on the European continent, 2008 – 2009 under then President Dmitry Medvedev. That is within the time horizon of political science.
I will pay particular attention to the tone of this Russian démarche and will try to explain why the Russians have drawn their “red lines” in the sand precisely now. All of this will lead to a conclusion that it is not only President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev who should be concerned about the condition of local bomb shelters, but also all of us in Brussels, Warsaw, Bucharest, etc. on this side of the Atlantic, and in Washington, D.C., New York and other major centers on the American continent. We are staring down what might be called Cuban Missile Crisis Redux.
We commentators each have our own starting dates for the narratives we offer to the reading public. In my case, I choose to begin with President Putin’s speech to the Munich Security Conference in February 2007. That speech in itself was very unusual, as Putin explained from his first moments at the lectern:
“This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This conference’s format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems. And if my comments seem unduly polemical, pointed or inexact to our colleagues, then I would ask you not to get angry with me. After all, this is only a conference. And I hope that after the first two or three minutes of my speech [the Conference host] will not turn on the red light over there.”
This led him to deliver the following bold assertion:
“I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security. And we must proceed by searching for a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.”
In a word, the concerns and the proposed process of solution through renewal of the architecture of security that we see today in Russia’s latest draft treaties go straight back to 2007 when Vladimir Putin came out publicly on the subject in what might be described as the lion’s den of the world security establishment.
With Senator John McCain and other champions of American global hegemony staring at him in disbelief from the front rows, in that speech Vladimir Putin set out in detail Russia’s rejection of the US led unipolar world as a source of international tensions, recourse to military solutions, an arms race and nuclear proliferation.
US hegemony was undemocratic and unworkable, he said.
The speech was also notable for Putin’s mention of the shabby treatment his country had received at American hands following the breakup of the USSR in the 1990s straight through into the new millennium. The key issue was expansion of NATO to the East, taking in former Warsaw Pact countries and, finally, former USSR republics, the Baltic States.
I quote:
“It turns out that NATO has put its frontline forces on our borders, and we continue to strictly fulfill the treaty obligations and do not react to these actions at all. I think it is obvious that NATO expansion does not have any relation with the modernization of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them.”
Putin’s 2007 speech was cast in the manner of complaint. It came from a country that was still only partially recovered from the economic devastation it suffered in the 1990s during a badly managed transition from the Soviet command economy to a market economy.
More to the point, his was a country with greatly diminished military capability compared to the Soviet super power from which it emerged independent. To a certain degree, the disbelief amidst the American and allied contingent in Munich arose from the very audacity of still puny Russia to challenge the powers that be.
In the weeks and months following Putin’s Munich speech, the United States recovered from its shock at his public denunciation and swiftly moved into counterattack, launching an Information War on Russia that is with us today.
From the closing days of the Bush Administration, through the entire Obama Administration save when the New START arms control agreement was being negotiated and signed within the brief period called “the reset,” the United States used every means fair and foul to discredit Russia before the global community in the hope of isolating the country and relegating it to pariah status.
Trade sanctions against Russia were first imposed by the United States in 2012 under the Magnitsky Act. The United States greatly expanded its sanctions policy on Russia following the annexation of the Crimea in March 2014. Thanks to the MH17 air catastrophe of that summer, a “false flag” event of the first magnitude, all of Europe was brought on board. The sanctions policy was renewed yet again by the EU just this past Friday.
Looking back at 2008, when Vladimir Putin passed the presidency to his stand-in, Dmitry Medvedev, we see that revising Europe’s security architecture was one of the key policy objectives of the Medvedev presidency. He spoke about it in a speech he delivered in Berlin in June 2008. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel was among the first to cold-shoulder the proposal, saying that Europe’s security arrangements had already taken concrete form.
In November 2009 he finally published on his website a draft treaty on European security. At the same time, Foreign Minister Lavrov officially submitted the document to the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) then meeting in Athens.
My book of essays entitled Stepping Out of Line, published in 2013, has a couple of chapters devoted to Medvedev’s initiative, which I concluded was hampered by a poor concept further weakened by poor execution. (“Medvedev’s Draft Treaty on European Security: Dead on Arrival” and “Russia’s Draft Treaty on European Security: Sergei Lavrov to the Rescue”
The draft agreement was first of all a non-aggression pact among and between all interested states in the Atlantic-Eurasian space. It would establish a framework of deliberative meetings in which all Member States would hear cases of threats of use of force or actual use of force against any Member State. However, nonaggression was merely window dressing, describing something which everyone could understand and say “amen” to. The second stated objective was to ensure the collective security of its members under the principle that no state or group of states could promote its security at the expense of other Member States.
What was missing from the draft treaty on European security was precisely the definition of what constituted enhancing one’s security at the expense of another. To Europeans the treaty could only serve the purpose of Russian grandstanding, establishing a major new forum for it to air any grievances it might have over NATO expansion, the missile defense system and other US sponsored measures enhancing Western security at the direct expense of Russian state security.
The emptiness of the draft treaty was a failure of Medvedev and his immediate assistants who drew it up. In February 2010, at the regular Munich Security Conference, Sergei Lavrov made a valiant effort to save the Medvedev initiative by proposing that the existing OSCE be re-engineered as the vehicle for ensuring collective security. Russia was saying that NATO must give up its predominance in Europe and cede place to a reinvigorated OSCE. Very little of Lavrov’s speech was reported in Western media.
The fact that it was quietly buried by all the receiving parties may be attributed to the very weak position of Russia itself at the time. The victorious Russian campaign against Georgia in 2008 was seen by defense professionals in the West very differently from what the general public understood. For professionals, the Russian military showed it had not made much progress from the poorly equipped and led forces that the USSR deployed in Afghanistan or that the Russian Federation deployed in Chechnya in the 1990s. The fact is that Medvedev’s posture was that of a supplicant, dealing from a weak hand. Do note, however, that the Russian concerns were precisely the same as those evoked by the Kremlin today as it promotes its new draft treaties.
Until the past few days, we heard no more of Russian draft treaties to alter the security architecture of Europe. Instead over the intervening years there have been repeated instances of Russian public complaints over US and NATO activities that it considers menacing. One such loud complaint came in January 2016 with release of a documentary film entitled World Order. This was a devastating critique of US global hegemony justified in the name of “democracy promotion” and “human rights” ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992.
Following on the points made in Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech of 2007, World Order illustrates through graphic footage and the testimony of independent world authorities the tragic consequences, the spread of chaos and misery, resulting from U.S.-engineered “regime change” and “color revolutions,” of which the violent overthrow of the Yanukovich regime in Ukraine in February 2014 was only the latest example.
The title of the film followed on Putin’s address to the 70th anniversary gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 which had as its central message that world order rests on international law, which in turn has as its foundation the UN Charter. By flouting the Charter and waging war without the sanction of the UN Security Council, starting with the NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 and continuing with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 up to its illegal bombings in Syria today, the United States and its NATO allies had shaken the foundations of international law.
The foreign interviewees in World Order comprised an impressive and diverse selection of leaders in various domains, including American film director Oliver Stone; Thomas Graham, former National Security Council director for Russia under George W. Bush; former IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn; former Pakistan President Perwez Musharraf; former French Foreign Minister Dominique Villepin; former Israeli President Shimon Peres; WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; and deputy leader of the Die Linke party in the German Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht.
Strauss-Kahn, Musharraf and others charged that the U.S. plots against and destroys foreign leaders who dare to oppose America’s total control over global flows of money, goods and people. Wagenknecht addressed the question of Germany’s subservience to American Diktats and its de facto circumscribed sovereignty. The statements supported Putin’s long-standing argument, reiterated in the film, that the Western European allies of the US are nothing more than vassals.
The clear message of the film was that US led “democracy promotion” and its spread of “universal values” will not be tolerated and that Russia has set down certain redlines, such as against NATO expansion into Ukraine or Georgia, over which it will fight to the death using all its resources.
However, strong and pointed as this documentary film was in setting out the views of the Kremlin on the global and European security, it was just a complaint, nothing more. I mention it in detail above to demonstrate the continuity of Russian concerns that this week have come to a head with the release of the draft treaties for consideration of NATO and the USA.
What is new today in the Russian démarche over European security? Both content and presentation are new.
In contrast to Dmitry Medvedev’s treaties of 2008-2009, the latest Russian draft texts are all content that is methodically and exhaustively set out. It refers directly to the activities of the United States and NATO over the past several years that Russia considers most threatening to its security and thus most objectionable.
It is clear that the master treaty is with the United States and that the treaty with NATO is a subsidiary treaty. This reflects the insistent view from the Kremlin that the NATO verbiage of its being a consensus driven alliance is rubbish and that the reality is American domination and direction of NATO. This view sweeps aside any objection from any of the NATO Member States, as for example the immediate objections that came from the Baltic States and Poland, that their agreement to the proposed changes is needed, not to mention the need to consult with other interested parties, namely Ukraine. The Kremlin clearly intends to isolate Washington in the negotiating process for these treaties, before pussy footing with the other NATO members.
In the spirit of the Ten Commandments, almost all of the content is in negatives, in prohibitions.
With respect to the proposed treaty with the United States, we find the following:
“[The Parties] shall not implement security measures adopted by each Party individually or in the framework of an international organization, military alliance or coalition that could undermine core security interests of the other Party.
“The Parties shall not use the territories of other Sates with a view to preparing or carrying out an armed attack against the other Party or other actions affecting core security interests of the other Party.
“The United States of America shall undertake to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deny accession to the Alliance to the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
“The United States of America shall not establish military bases in the territory of the States of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, use their infrastructure for any military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.
“The Parties shall refrain from flying heavy bombers equipped for nuclear or non-nuclear armaments or deploying surface warships of any type, including in the framework of international organizations, military alliances or coalitions, in the areas outside national airspace and national territorial waters respectively, from where they can attack targets in the territory of the other Party.
“The Parties shall undertake not to deploy ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles outside their national territories, as well as in the areas of their national territories, from which such weapons can attack targets in the national territory of the other Party.
“The Parties shall refrain from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories and return such weapons already deployed outside their national territories at the time of the entry into force of the Treaty to their national territories. The Parties shall eliminate all existing infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons outside their national territories.”
As regards the draft treaty with NATO, I call particular attention to the following provisions:
“The Parties shall exercise restraint in military planning and conducting exercises to reduce risks of eventual dangerous situations in accordance with their obligations under international law, including those set out in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of incidents at sea outside territorial waters and in the airspace above, as well as in intergovernmental agreements on the prevention of dangerous military activities.
“In order to address issues and settle problems, the Parties shall use the mechanisms of urgent bilateral or multilateral consultations, including the NATO-Russia Council.
“The Parties reaffirm that they do not consider each other as adversaries.
“The Parties shall maintain dialogue and interaction on improving mechanisms to prevent incidents on and over the high seas (primarily in the Baltics and the Black Sea region).
“The Russian Federation and all the Parties that were member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as of 27 May 1997, respectively, shall not deploy military forces and weaponry on the territory of any of the other States in Europe in addition to the forces stationed on that territory as of 27 May 1997. ….
“The Parties shall not deploy land-based intermediate and short-range missiles in areas allowing them to reach the territory of the other Parties.
“All member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commit themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine as well as other States.
“The Parties that are member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shall not conduct any military activity on the territory of Ukraine as well as other States in Eastern Europe, in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia.”
The draft treaties do not create a new security architecture so much as they dismantle existing architecture added since the mid-1990s by the United States and its allies through NATO expansion to the east, military exercises close to Russian borders and air space, “temporary” stationing of personnel and equipment in forward positions approaching Russian borders.
If accepted in their present form, these treaties would represent a total capitulation by the United States over everything four successive administrations have tried to achieve to contain Russia and put it in a small cage at the periphery of Europe.
The demands are so stunning in scope that we must ask why Russia is taking the seemingly enormous risk of advancing them, and doing so publicly. Moreover, why now?
I have two explanations to advance: the first is the unshakable confidence that Vladimir Putin and his colleagues have in their present tactical advantage over the United States in the European theater of operations and strategic advantage over the United States on American home territory if push comes to shove.
Three years ago Putin used his annual State of the Union address to show off the newest weapons systems that Russia had successfully tested and was now putting into serial production, most particularly the hypersonic missiles that can evade all known ABM systems. He said then that for the first time in its modern history Russia had moved ahead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic weapons systems. While the States might develop the same with time, the Russians would move still further ahead.
Moreover, Putin claimed that whereas in its past the United States had considered the oceans to be its natural defense against military conquest from abroad, the latest Russian missiles, small enough to be carried in containers on merchant ships, on frigates or on submarines turned the adjacent oceans into the country’s weak point. The Russians could station their weapons just outside the 200 mile economic zone and still reach key military targets on US territory within several minutes. That is to say that Russia could now do what Khrushchev was denied the right to do in 1962 by stationing Soviet missiles in Cuba.
During his roll-out speech, Putin hoped that the United States and its Western partners would take notice, would do the arithmetic and alter their threatening behavior. Instead, Western media tended to treat the Russian weaponry as a bluff, or as something beyond the Russians’ ability to produce in sufficient quantities and with speed to pose a threat before the USA possessed the same.
One year ago, the Russian president again called attention to the deployment of the new weapons systems and urged the United States to react appropriately. Of course, once again Washington did nothing. Instead the US administration continued to raise the threat level of China and to dismiss Russia as nothing more than spoilers running a country on its way down.
Finally, we may conclude that Vladimir Vladimirovich and his team have decided to act, and to act now on the strength of the strategic superiority they believe they enjoy. Given the very cautious way that Putin has always conducted government affairs over the past twenty years, anyone who thinks the Kremlin is bluffing or miscalculating had better think again.
Now there is also a second, supportive factor to explain the Russians’ decision to publicize what is essentially an ultimatum to the USA. That factor is China. It is not for nothing that Putin and Xi had a widely publicized video conference call this week during which the Chinese President gave his full backing to Russian demands for resolution of the security crisis in Europe and said explicitly that the Chinese–Russian relationship is higher than an alliance.
Now what could be higher than an alliance? Surely this hints at a mutual defense pact, meaning that each side will come to the aid of the other as needed.
We may assume that there is something in writing between the Russians and the Chinese to give Putin the confidence that he has China at his back as he ventures into diplomatic and possibly military confrontation with the United States and its NATO allies.
And yet, what would the value of such a scrap of paper be? Where would you seek redress if the Chinese failed to delivery and NATO marched to Moscow? No, the value of the video conference with XI lies elsewhere. Like their amassing 100,000 troops at the Ukrainian border, the Russians are using the Chinese backing to scare the hell out of Washington, which might well assume that the Chinese will coordinate their own military actions against Taiwan, against the US naval forces in the South China Sea and beyond to present the United States with an unwinnable two-front war while serving their own, Chinese, interests.
Should the political situation in Washington prevent such lucid thinking, I believe that the Russians will fall back on their own quite independent ability to put a pistol to the head of the American establishment, through the stationing of its missile forces just offshore, which has not yet been done.
How this plays out will depend on the nature of the US response to Russia’s next move, which might, in the circumstances of Washington stonewalling, be that invasion of Ukraine that has been so much talked about in the past few weeks. It would be foolhardy at this point to sketch all possible scenarios. But we are surely at the moment when the “the worm turns.”
In conclusion, I call the reader’s attention to one further detail on presentation: who has been the messenger on the Kremlin’s behalf.
For the past several years, people around Vladimir Putin have joked with respect to foreign powers, “if they cannot deal with Lavrov [RF Minister of Foreign Affairs], then they will have to deal with Shoigu [RF Minister of Defense].” Judging by the last two weeks, I would insert another personality into this equation: Sergei Alekseevich Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Ryabkov has been around for a good long time, but till now we did not hear much from him. He graduated from the prestigious MGIMO, the higher school that traditionally educated fast-track candidates of the Soviet-Russian diplomatic corps. He served several years at the Russian embassy in the Washington and is fluent in English. In the new millennium he has had responsibilities relating to non-proliferation and managing relations with Europe. His present title is Deputy Minister.
As relations with the United States and the EU have heated up in recent weeks over the buildup of Russian forces at the border with Ukraine, Ryabkov has been speaking to the press and has done so in an undiplomatic, in-your-face fashion. When one reporter asked him a week ago about how some of Russia’s “partners in the West” would react to something, he snapped back: “We have no partners in the West, only enemies. I stopped using the word “partner” some time ago.”
The Kremlin’s showcasing of the bulldog Ryabkov is part of the change in tone, the new assertiveness of Putin and his team to which I refer above.
We are making it clear that we are ready to talk about changing from a military or a military-technical scenario to a political process that really will strengthen the military security… of all the countries in the OCSE, Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space. We’ve told them that if that doesn’t work out, we will create counter-threats; then it will be too late to ask us why we made such decisions and positioned such weapons systems.
Мы как раз даем понять, что мы готовы разговаривать о том, чтобы военный сценарий или военно-технический сценарий перевести в некий политический процесс, который реально укрепит военную безопасность <…> всех государств на пространстве ОБСЕ, Евроатлантики, Евразии. А если этого не получится, то мы уже обозначили им (НАТО – прим. ТАСС), тогда мы тоже перейдем в вот этот режим создания контругроз, но тогда будет поздно нас спрашивать, почему мы приняли такие решения, почему мы разместили такие системы.
— Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko quoted by TASS
Moscow has issued an ultimatum to USA/NATO. It is this: seriously negotiate on the issues laid out here and here. Some of them are non-negotiable.
Ultimatums always have an “Or Else” clause. What is the “or else” in this case? I don’t know but I’ve been thinking and reading other peoples’ thoughts and some ideas/guesses/suppositions follow. They are the order that they occurred to me. Whether Moscow has such a list in front of it or not, it certainly has many “counter-threats” it can use.
Why now? Two possible answers, each of which may be true. US/NATO have been using “salami tactics” against Russia for years; Moscow has decided that a second Ukraine crisis in one year is one thin slice too many. Second: Moscow may judge that, in the USA’s precipitous decline, this will be the last chance that there will be sufficient central authority to form a genuine agreement; an agreement that will avoid a catastrophic war. (The so-called Thucydides Trap).
Of course I don’t know what Putin & Co will do and we do have to factor in the existence of a new international player: Putin, Xi and Partners. Xi has just made it clear that Beijing supports Moscow’s “core interests”. It is likely that any “counter-threats” will be coordinated. The Tabaquis have responded as expected but maybe (let’s hope so) Washington is taking it more seriously.
To my CSIS readers: the world is at a grave inflection point and the West had better concentrate its attention. Moscow and Beijing don’t depend on me for advice and I’m not talking to them: regard this as one of the briefing notes that I used to write.
Moscow is serious and it does have real “counter-threats”.
MILITARY MEASURES
Moscow could publish a list of targets in NATO countries that can and will be hit by nuclear or non-nuclear standoff weapons in the event of hostilities. These would likely include headquarters, airbases, port facilities, logistics facilities, ammunition dumps, military bases, munitions factories and so on.
Moscow could station medium and short-range nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad and Belarus. The latter requires agreement from Minsk but Belarus President Lukashenka has hinted that it will be granted. Moscow could then make it clear that they are aimed at NATO targets.
Moscow could station Iskanders and have lots of aircraft in the air with Kinzhals and let it be known that they are aimed at NATO targets.
Moscow could make a sudden strike by stand-off weapons and special forces that destroys the Azov Battalion in Eastern Ukraine. Moscow would see two advantages: 1) it would remove the principal threat to the LDNR and 2) it would change the correlation of forces in Kiev. It would also be a live demonstration of Russia’s tremendous military power.
Moscow could remind the West of the meaning of Soviet Marshal Ogarkov’s observation that precision weapons have, to a degree, made nuclear weapons obsolete. A prescient remark, somewhat ahead of its time 35 years ago, but realised now by Russia’s arsenal of hypersonic precision missiles.
The Russian Navy operates the quietest submarines in the world; Moscow could could make and publish a movie of the movements of some NATO ship as seen through the periscope.
I believe (suspect/guess) that the Russian Armed Forces have the capability to blind Aegis-equipped ships. Moscow could do so in public in a way that cannot be denied. Without Aegis, the US surface navy is just targets. Objection: this is a war-winning secret and should not be lightly used. Unless, of course, the Russian Armed Forces have something even more effective.
Russia has large and very powerful airborne forces – much stronger than the light infantry of other countries, they are capable of seizing and holding territory against all but heavy armoured attacks. And they’re being increased. Moscow could demonstrate their capability in an exercise showing a sudden seizing of key enemy facilities like a port or major airfield, inviting NATO representatives to watch from the target area.
The Russian Armed Forces could do some obvious targetting of the next NATO element to come close to Russia’s borders; they could aggressively ping ships and aircraft that get too close and publicise it.
Moscow could make a public demonstration of what Poseidons can do and show in a convincing way that they are at sea off the US coast. Ditto with Burevestnik. In short Moscow could directly threaten the US mainland with non-nuclear weapons. Something that no one has been able to do since 1814.
Does the Club-K Container Missile System actually exist? (If so, Moscow could give a public demonstration, if not pretend that it does). Either way, Moscow could publicly state that they will be all over the place and sell them to countries threatened by USA/NATO.
DIPLOMATIC/INTERNATIONAL MEASURES
Moscow could publicly transfer some key military technologies to China with licence to build them there.
Moscow could make a formal military treaty with China with an “Article 5” provision.
Moscow could make a formal military treaty with Belarus including significant stationed strike forces.
Moscow could station forces in Central Asian neighbours.
Russia and Chinese warships accompanied by long-range strike aircraft could do a “freedom of navigation” cruise in the Gulf of Mexico.
Moscow could recall ambassadors, reduce foreign missions, restrict movement of diplomats in Russia.
Moscow could ban all foreign NGOs immediately without going through the present process.
Moscow could recognise LDNR and sign defence treaties.
Moscow could work on Turkey, Hungary and other dissident EU/NATO members.
Moscow could give military aid to or station weapons in Western Hemisphere countries.
Beijing could do something in its part of the world to show its agreement and coordination with Moscow raising the threat of a two front conflict.
ECONOMIC MEASURES
Moscow could close airspace to civil airlines of the countries that sanction Russia.
Moscow could declare that Russian exports must now be paid for in Rubles, gold, Renminbi or Euros (Euros? It depends).
Moscow could announce that Nord Stream 2 will be abandoned if certification if delayed past a certain date. (Personally, I am amused by how many people think that shutting it down would cause more harm to Russia than to Germany: for the first it’s only money and Russia has plenty of that; for the second….)
Moscow could stop all sales of anything to USA (rocket motors and oil especially).
Moscow could announce that no more gas contracts to countries that sanction it will be made after the current ones end. This is a first step. See below.
As a second and more severe step, Moscow could break all contracts with countries that sanction Russia on the grounds that a state of hostility exists. That is, all oil and gas deliveries stop immediately.
Moscow could announce that no more gas will be shipped to or through Ukraine on the grounds that a state of hostility exists.
Russia and China could roll out their counter-SWIFT ASAP.
SUBVERSIVE MEASURES
Moscow could stir up trouble in eastern Ukraine (Novorossiya) supporting secession movements.
Moscow could order special forces to attack key nazi organisations throughout Ukraine.
Moscow could order special forces to attack military facilities throughout Ukraine.
*********************************************
But I’m sure that whatever “counter-threats” Moscow comes up with will be powerful and surprise the West. My recommendation is that USA/NATO take the ultimatums seriously.
After all, the Russian proposals really are mutually beneficial – their theme is that nobody should threaten anybody and if anybody should feel threatened, there should be serious talks to resolve the issue.
Security is mutual:
if all feel secure, then all are secure;
if one feels insecure, then none is secure.
As we now see: when Russia feels threatened by what USA/NATO do, it can threaten back. Better to live in a world in which nobody is threatening anybody and everybody feels secure.
I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.
…
The Growing Russia-China Relationship
Under the pressure of US sanctions, threats, aggression and an imposed Second Cold War, the Russia-China relationship is growing closer and closer.
Personal Relationship
On December 15, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for a virtual summit. XI welcomed his “old friend,” and Putin greeted his “dear friend.”
Their greetings to each other were neither scripted nor posturing for the West. In June 2018, Putin told an interviewer that “President XI Jinping is probably the only world leader I have celebrated one of my birthdays with.” He added that XI”is a very reliable partner.” For his part, XI has called Putin “my best, most intimate friend.”
But the growing relationship is not just a friendship between the leaders of the people of the two countries. It is also a growing friendship between the people of the two countries. Relations between Russia and China were not always good. In 2016, before the intense US pressure started pushing the two countries together, only 34% of Russians viewed China favorably; in 2019, 84% saw China as “more a partner than a rival.”
International Relationship
Russia and China have also partnered as the leaders of an important new set of international organizations, like the BRICS nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Both of these organizations are intended to balance US hegemony and exceptionalism in international politics. Both of these organizations are huge, each representing nearly half the world, and both are led by Russia and China as the principal partners. Both also include India. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization represents a quarter of the world’s economy and four of its nuclear powers.
In their virtual summit, Putin and XI discussed the possibility of a three way summit with India, a member of both BRICS and the SCO: a message the US must surely be listening to as it forces nations to choose sides in the new Cold War.
Bilateral Relationship
But most important is the increasingly tight bilateral relationship between Russia and China.
The modern Russia-China relationship was first contracted with the he Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, in which the two nations commit not to enter into “any alliance or be party to any bloc . . . which compromises the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the other. . .. ” Dmitri Trenin, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center explains the relationship as one in which, though Russia and China “do not have to follow each other,” they “will never go against each other.”
But Putin said in his June 2018 interview that that treaty “is only the foundation we have built our current relationship on.” He said that, building on that foundation, the structure is “growing taller and stronger.”
It grew much stronger on June 5, 2019, when according to Alexander Lukin of HSE University in Moscow, Russia and China signed a joint statement announcing a “comprehensive and strategic interaction.” Russia is “officially developing,” Lukin says, “a ‘strategic partnership’ with Beijing, making China not only a friend, but practically an ally.”
The wording is important. Russia and China both want a world that transcends blocs, and they are reluctant to enter into formal alliances or blocs. They are more than friends and practically allies. Striving for an ambiguous formulation that doesn’t commit to being a bloc or an alliance while implying something more than a bloc or an alliance, in his June 2018 interview, Putin described Russia’s relationship with China as “a relationship that probably cannot be compared with anything in the world.”
Echoing and strengthening that rhetorical ambiguity, in their virtual summit, Chinese President XI Jinping described a relationship that is growing ever closer when he said “this relationship even exceeds an alliance in its closeness and effectiveness.”
In a personal correspondence, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who prepared daily intelligence briefs for several presidents and was Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch, told me that the XI’s formulation would have been chosen very carefully. The calculated ambiguity was meant to convey both that it is not an alliance – so that China doesn’t get drawn into Ukraine, and Russia doesn’t get drawn into Taiwan – and that is so close it exceeds an alliance. It is a formulation deliberately broadcast during the summit as a warning to the US if it persists in forcing the world into a second cold war. Unlike the first cold war, this time the US will face two superpowers.
McGovern told me that a key part of what is behind this message is Putin’s earnestness about getting a legally binding assurance that NATO will stop expanding east toward Ukraine and Russia’s borders. But, he said, what is even more important to Putin is NATO’s plan to put anti-ballistic missiles within range of Russia.
On December 2, 2021, Putin clearly demanded “reliable and long-term security guarantees [that] would exclude any further NATO moves eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory.” On December 15, the day of his summit with XI, Putin sent the US a proposal on mutual security guarantees and a request for immediate negotiations. Putin informed XI of the security guarantee proposal during their virtual summit.
It was in response to that information that, during the summit, XI said “We firmly support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests” and proposed that Russia and China cooperate to “more effectively safeguard the security interests of both parties.”
McGovern says that XI was very clear in stressing that he appreciates and admires Putin’s emphasis over the years on the need to respect China’s core interests and his strongly resisting US attempts to drive a wedge between China and Russia. XI stressed the close relationship and emphasized that since Putin had admirably and loyally stressed the close and mutually beneficial relationship, he was not going to leave Russia alone in its demand to get security guarantees from the US. The message was clear: they supported us; we will support them. And the issue was clearly NATO.
The choice of words and the public message to Biden were very clear. If you are going to persist in forcing a second cold war, it will be a different cold war. This time it won’t be a cold war with Russia or China: it will be a cold war with Russia and China combined.
Meanwhile…
The American psychopaths are not stopping for shit. They are not taking the message seriously and are still continuing their piss-poor games. They are more than idiots. Shit! They deserve what is coming for them.
Sivkov: DPR border guards disrupted a special operation of German special forces in the Donbass
Today
The expert is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored.
According to military expert Konstantin Sivkov, British and German special forces tried to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). However, the Western saboteurs failed, as their operation was prevented by employees of the DPR border service. The analyst noted that the border guards managed to detain foreign special forces without a fight.
"The Americans are going to make a provocation and disappear. One thing is important: now there is actually another wave of hysteria about the fact that Russia is going to attack Ukraine. We are talking about the fact that they are purposefully going to put the Russian Federation in a position where it will be forced to take military measures.",- said the expert on the air of "Solovyov LIVE".
Sivkov is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored. According to the analyst, such provocations are part of a plan to destabilize the situation in the Donbas. Similar actions are also directed against Russia. Washington wants Moscow to start a war, Sivkov believes.
—
С уважением,
Бойко Ирина Львовна
Other Sources
Escobar and Martyanov have also put up pieces on Kazak situation. Reading the three gives a good picture. Martyanov gives the end result of US shenanigans. A report I read elsewhere said a number of armed protesters were eliminated.. Those suckers who work for US "interests" become pawns who are simply eliminated from the game. I like that term. It is also a bit of a contradiction as those pawns a simply ordinary people who have been suckered in to sacrifice their lives to further US "interests".
There is a fungus that takes control of a flies brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Jw5ib-s_I US reminds me of that fungus.
Escobar https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/01/06/steppe-on-fire-kazakhstan-color-revolution/
Martyanov https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/01/so-kremlin-confirms.html
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 6 2022 10:57 utc | 8
…Now compare it to what I learned from two different, high-ranking intel sources.
The first source was explicit: the whole Kazakh adventure is being sponsored by MI6 to create a new Maidan right before the Russia/US-NATO talks in Geneva and Brussels next week, to prevent any kind of agreement. Significantly, the “rebels” maintained their national coordination even after the internet was disconnected.
The second source is more nuanced: the usual suspects are trying to force Russia to back down against the collective West by creating a major distraction in their Eastern front, as part of a rolling strategy of chaos all along Russia’s borders. That may be a clever diversionary tactic, but Russian military intel is watching. Closely.
And for the sake of the “usual suspects”, this better may not be interpreted – ominously – was a war provocation.
Summary
So the response from the US to the Russian non-ultimatum ultimatum is to speed up their plans already in place to destabilize Russia? It’s clear that they’re not taking Russia’s red lines seriously and as Putin the other day stated there is nowhere left for Russia to retreat to.
Russia’s back is against the wall and their only option is to either cave in or go to war because the US is not taking no for an answer.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 6 2022 10:17 utc | 4
The Untied States is still playing “it’s games”. The warnings from both Russia and China are not being taken seriously.
When Russia told the United States to “get off my front porch, get out of my front yard, and stay away from my back yard”, the United States simply said “Ok”, and then went on top of the roof and is trying to go down the chimney.
This WILL NOT end up well.
“The trajectory is not optimistic,” Chomsky says. “The worst case is the increasing provocative actions towards China. That’s very dangerous.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I usually have tried to refrain from injections and Vaxx subjects, but this one is special. And during a Q&A with the Domain, yet to be published, I was instructed to send this out.
Here is the entire segment from the Q&A…
"Already systems are in place to suppress the desire to generate a major conflict against China.
Within a year or two, a conflict will be the last thing in the minds of the United States leadership.
Everyone will notice that something is amiss by the end of this year (2022), and it will be quite obvious by the end of the next (2023).
Most sensible humans would come to the conclusion that a war would be ill advised.
You will write about it tomorrow."
Here is the article. Complete.
What if the largest experiment on human beings in history is a failure?
A seasoned stock analyst colleague texted me a link today, and when I clicked it open, I could hardly believe what I was reading. What a headline. “Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64”. This headline is a nuclear truth bomb masquerading as an insurance agent’s dry manila envelope full of actuarial tables.
People frequently write to Jill and myself. People we have never met. They call, they arrive at the farm by appointment or unannounced, they fill our email in boxes with their inquiries. They all want something; time, attention, an interview. Many want to tell us about their fear, illness, nightmares, or (what often seems like) outright paranoid conspiracies. And then, over time, these fears and “conspiracies” keep getting confirmed. As Jan Jekielek (a senior editor with The Epoch Times) recently said to me, it is getting harder and harder to tell which ones are mere conspiracy theories and which are true reality.
One farm visitor told me of his foreshadowing massive numbers of deaths within three years consequent to the genetic vaccines, and that this was all about the “Great Reset” and the depopulation agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF). I tried to reassure him that, in my opinion, this was highly unlikely- while privately thinking about how easily people fall into this type of conspiracy ideation, and how I need to be careful to avoid going there when confronting so many public health decisions that appear either incompetent or nefarious.
At the time, I only knew of the WEF as the host of a big annual party in Davos Switzerland where the uber rich and the hoi oligoi of the Western nations went to watch Ted talks, drink the best wine, see and be seen. Silly me. What a long, strange trip this has been. I doubt that even Hunter S. Thompson could have imagined it in his most drug and booze addled state. Suffice to say, I nominate Ralph Steadman as official illustrator of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Or a resurrected Hieronymus Bosch.
But I am wandering from a point that I am afraid to clearly state…
Uh oh
It is starting to look to me like the largest experiment on human beings in recorded history has failed.
And, if this rather dry report from a senior Indiana life insurance executive holds true, then Reiner Fuellmich’s “Crimes against Humanity” push for convening new Nuremberg trials starts to look a lot less quixotic and a lot more prophetic.
Here is what lit me up in this report from The Center Square contributor Margaret Menge.
“The head of Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica said the death rate is up a stunning 40% from pre-pandemic levels among working-age people.“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said during an online news conference this week. “The data is consistent across every player in that business.”
OneAmerica is a $100 billion insurance company that has had its headquarters in Indianapolis since 1877. The company has approximately 2,400 employees and sells life insurance, including group life insurance to employers in the state.
Davison said the increase in deaths represents “huge, huge numbers,” and that’s it’s not elderly people who are dying, but “primarily working-age people 18 to 64” who are the employees of companies that have group life insurance plans through OneAmerica.
“And what we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40% over what they were pre-pandemic,” he said.“Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a one-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic,” he said. “So 40% is just unheard of.””
So, what is driving this unprecedented surge in all-cause mortality?
“Most of the claims for deaths being filed are not classified as COVID-19 deaths,“What the data is showing to us is that the deaths that are being reported as COVID deaths greatly understate the actual death losses among working-age people from the pandemic. It may not all be COVID on their death certificate, but deaths are up just huge, huge numbers.””
AT A MINIMUM, based on my reading, one has to conclude that if this report holds and is confirmed by others in the dry world of life insurance actuaries, we have both a huge human tragedy and a profound public policy failure of the US Government and US HHS system to serve and protect the citizens that pay for this “service”.
IF this holds true, then the genetic mRNC vaccines so aggressively promoted have failed, and the clear federal campaign to prevent early treatment with lifesaving drugs has contributed to a massive, avoidable loss of life.
AT WORST, this report implies that the federal workplace vaccine mandates have driven what appear to be a true crime against humanity. Massive loss of life in (presumably) workers that have been forced to accept a toxic vaccine at higher frequency relative to the general population of Indiana.
The problem is the mRNA vaccines themselves
FURTHERMORE, we have also been living through the most massive, globally coordinated propaganda and censorship campaign in the history of the human race. All major mass media and the social media technology companies have coordinated to stifle and suppress any discussion of the risks of the genetic mRNA vaccines AND/OR alternative early treatments.
IF this report holds true, there must be accountability. We are not just talking about running over the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States and grinding it into the mud with an army of artificial intelligence-powered heavy infantry.
This article reads like a dry description of an avoidable mass casualty event caused by a mandated experimental medical procedure. One for which all opportunities for the victims to have become self-informed about the potential risks have been methodically erased from both the internet and public awareness by an international corrupt cabal operating under the flag of the “Trusted News Initiative”.
George Orwell must be spinning in his grave.
MM Thoughts
I posted it as told.
It appears to indicate something odd is going on inside of the United States, and since the media is completely controlled by the government, no one really knows what is going on. However, if you look elsewhere there seems to be some alarming trends.
Taking the fact that I was told to post this article, and it was used in conjunction with a discussion of a situation that would dissuade the United States government from getting involved in a war with China, I think that it is significant.
The author is confirming that the actuarial tables (associated with Life Insurance policies) are clearly showing an unheard of association between an increase in deaths and the mRNA vaccines. There is apparently a direct correlation between the two.
Further, he accuses the media, the government and big business of a massive conspiracy. Whether it is part of some kind of depopulation agenda, a profit-motive, or just being malevolent, is not stated.
He suggests rallying up and demanding “Rights” and “accountability” fully oblivious that the United States is a Military empire and he is living in a Police State where he has no voice, no control, no power and no future.
Obviously the United States is a toxic place. But I wasn’t aware that it was this toxic. A 40% increase in a death rate is very concerning.
It’s a stealth SHTF event.
Obviously, if these trends continue or get worse, then the Deagel report will be vindicated, and there will not be enough people left alive in the United States to wage a war against China, let alone run the country.
Frightening stuff.
Special Considerations
There are MANY MM readers that might be shell-shocked from this information. I want to tell you all NOT TO WORRY. From what I understand, the human body adapts to the mRNA changes. You (if you have had an mRNA injection) will need to adapt to prevent what is apparently a potential bad series of side effects.
I do not understand it, but your body will require more oxygenation to prevent any adverse side effects.
This can be obtained via vitamin supplements, more exercise, walks outside in nature, and a reduction in super-processed food like sugary breakfast cereals, deep fried pig skins, and a reduction in fast food to perhaps once a week instead of five times a week.
It has been clearly relayed that once you obtain the mRNA injection, your body needs oxygenation at a greater level than what we all have come to live with. So you must alter your lifestyle with some vitamins, walks and a reduction in super-processed food intakes.
The article above suggests that people who do not alter their lifestyle behaviors towards more oxygenation, will start to see some health complications.
PissedLizard Comments
From an email communication... -MM
Absolutely. I am very familiar with Dr. Malone and the article referenced. I know what I am going to write goes against the narrative, but literally pick up a high school biology book and it’s right there.
…
The mRNA is from stem cells derived from fetal tissue.
So you are taking another human beings mRNA, mixing it with others, THEN running it thru CRISPR – which tells the mRNA in the vax to make spike proteins.
The thought is that if you naturally make the spike protein that Corona has, you will always have be able to produce anti- antibodies to the spike protein.
Sounds good in theory but you aren’t supposed to make virus spike protein. Although the HUMAN mRNA is programmed to make spike proteins – it could be programmed for anything – and that’s the boosters – but the spike proteins are getting thrown everywhere. They are sticking to the inside of the heart and irritating the blood supply of the middle “muscle” layer of the heart (myocarditis).
This is messed up. It has been from day 1. And for them – all blame goes to Trump. It’s “his vaccine”.
mRNA translates instructions from the nucleus to make a protein – which is basically almost every thing in you.
And all of these miscarriages and sterilizations – yeah. Of course… it’s fucking FETAL TISSUE. Of course mon is going to react. It usually isn’t overt but when you have billions getting the shots – as you see in other articles elsewhere – deaths in the USA up 40 – 60 percent and all non Covid. This shit is designed to kill.
And don’t be fooled about the sinovax either – follow that money for yourself to see EXACTLY what this shit is.
<redacted>
I hope this helps! If not or any other questions – let me know.
The spike proteins get lodged in capillary beds – that’s probably the “get oxygenated” thing though.
Final MM comments
Everyone in China is taking the “dead-host” vaccine. MM myself have taken two injections and am scheduled for a booster late February.
I have altered my lifestyle to accommodate.
I have severely cut down on my super-processed foods. I am trying (not quite as successfully as I would like) for more outside fresh air and exercise. And taking a daily vitamin supplement. The impression that I have is that this would be enough to compensate for any ill-adaptations as a result of the injections.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The internet is a funny place. One button takes you to interesting places, and another takes your down a black hole of lies and manipulation.
For instance, I saw this little guy. Must have had one Hell of a hard life. Rescued, and is now with a family that loves him and who will take care of him and appreciate him. Poor guy. He has seen some shit. I’ll tell you what.
Yeah. This little guy has seen some shit.
On the other hand, I just read a great knee-slapper of a fantasy from the American neocon publication “Foreign Affairs“. It is titled “Washington is preparing for the wrong war with China.” While they correctly warn that it would be a mistake to get involved in defending Taiwan from China, they are wholly incorrect on their reasoning.
Caitlan Johnson, an astute social and political columnist, writes:
” …going to war with Russia or China over who governs Taiwan or Ukraine would only be supported by crazy morons. People often object to this position saying...
‘So you’re saying we should just let China/Russia invade Taiwan/Ukraine??’
And the answer is ...
"Yes. Of course we should. What are you a fucking idiot?'”
There are many such articles. Overall the promoted mainstream media trend seems to be…
The USA getting involved in a war over Taiwan serves no benefit to the USA.
That the war would be a long, drawn out affair.
The war would be similar to the war in Afghanistan where billions of dollars will be spent fighting a war on Chinese soil.
But overall, in the long term the USA would benefit because it is “exceptional”.
Ugh.
True moronic pieces, but judging from the likes and forwards, it must really ring a bell and resonate with Americans.
It would take Beijing decades to overcome the losses incurred from a war to take Taiwan, even if Beijing triumphs.
The United States and our western allies, on the other hand, would remain at full military power, dominate the international business markets, and have the moral high ground to keep China hemmed in like nothing that presently exists.
Xi would be seen as an unquestioned aggressor, even by other Asian regimes, and the fallout against China could knock them back decades.
Our security would be vastly improved from what it is today – and incalculably higher than if we foolishly tried to fight a war with China.
-The Guardian
Like I said. These people are living in a fantasy world.
Here, for shits and giggles, I am going to tear into one of their “articles” and pull out and highlight some terrible inaccuracies.
Buckle up.
Let’s go through this article paragraph by paragraph.
Washington Is Preparing for the Wrong War With China
The United States is getting serious about the threat of war with China. The U.S. Department of Defense has labeled China its primary adversary, civilian leaders have directed the military to develop credible plans to defend Taiwan, and President Joe Biden has strongly implied that the United States would not allow that island democracy to be conquered.
All absolutely true. The United States has taken a strong war stance and is beating the war drums very loudly.
Yet Washington may be preparing for the wrong kind of war. Defense planners appear to believe that they can win a short conflict in the Taiwan Strait merely by blunting a Chinese invasion. Chinese leaders, for their part, seem to envision rapid, paralyzing strikes that break Taiwanese resistance and present the United States with a fait accompli. Both sides would prefer a splendid little war in the western Pacific, but that is not the sort of war they would get.
Both sides anticipate a short war.
The Chinese are planning a military exercise that would be over within hours.
The American and Taiwanese anticipate a short war also, but one that would be drawn out on the order of weeks to pull in American and Allied forces from Japan, Korea and Australia to fight the Chinese on Taiwan soil. they also believe that China would not consider this action as an invasion. And thus it would be a regional battle on Taiwan and on the South China Sea. A Pretty ENORMOUS assumption.
A war over Taiwan is likely to be long rather than short, regional rather than local, and much easier to start than to end. It would expand and escalate, as both countries look for paths to victory in a conflict neither side can afford to lose. It would also present severe dilemmas for peacemaking and high risks of going nuclear. If Washington doesn’t start preparing to wage, and then end, a protracted conflict now, it could face catastrophe once the shooting starts.
Nope. No. No. No.
What would the United States do to China if China started bombing Hawaii, put manpower, missiles, and tanks on Hawaii and took over the cities there?
America would launch missiles at Beijing. That's what America would do.
It would NOT send forces for a "long war" on Hawaii.
And so I am a telling youse guys that any American attacks, landings, or military actions of any kinds, type or manner will result in equal and measured attacks against American CITIES inside of America.
Let’s continue…
IMPENDING SLUGFEST
A U.S.-Chinese war over Taiwan would begin with a bang. China’s military doctrine emphasizes coordinated operations to “paralyze the enemy in one stroke.” In the most worrying scenario, Beijing would launch a surprise missile attack, hammering not only Taiwan’s defenses but also the naval and air forces that the United States has concentrated at a few large bases in the western Pacific. Simultaneous Chinese cyberattacks and antisatellite operations would sow chaos and hinder any effective U.S. or Taiwanese response. And the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would race through the window of opportunity, staging amphibious and airborne assaults that would overwhelm Taiwanese resistance. By the time the United States was ready to fight, the war would effectively be over.
All true.
However, the scale of the takeover would be beyond all this kind of fighting. The Chinese and the Taiwanese are brothers. They speak the same language, and both consider themselves Chinese.
It will be a silent coup.
One day you have Taiwan, the next day, you have China. And everyone will be trying to figure out what happened.
The Pentagon’s planning increasingly revolves around preventing this scenario, by hardening and dispersing the U.S. military presence in Asia, encouraging Taiwan to field asymmetric capabilities that can inflict a severe toll on Chinese attackers, and developing the ability to blunt the PLA’s offensive capabilities and sink an invasion fleet. This planning is predicated on the critical assumption that the early weeks, if not days, of fighting would determine whether a free Taiwan survives.
I agree that this seems to be the American military strategy.
Yet whatever happens at the outset, a conflict almost certainly wouldn’t end quickly. Most great-power wars since the Industrial Revolution have lasted longer than expected, because modern states have the resources to fight on even when they suffer heavy losses. Moreover, in hegemonic wars—clashes for dominance between the world’s strongest states—the stakes are high, and the price of defeat may seem prohibitive. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, wars between leading powers—the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the world wars—were protracted slugfests. A U.S.-Chinese war would likely follow this pattern.
Yes. The American cities of Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, New York, and San Francisco would be glowing for months afterwards.
If Washington doesn’t prepare for conflict now, it could face catastrophe once the shooting starts.
If the United States managed to beat back a Chinese assault against Taiwan, Beijing wouldn’t simply give up. Starting a war over Taiwan would be an existential gamble: admitting defeat would jeopardize the regime’s legitimacy and President Xi Jinping’s hold on power. It would also leave China more vulnerable to its enemies and destroy its dreams of regional primacy. Continuing a hard fight against the United States would be a nasty prospect, but quitting while China was behind would seem even worse.
This is all dreaming nonsense by a writer who has absolutely no clue as to how the Chinese think.
Taiwan is Chinese. Period. They speak the Chinese language, they hold Chinese residency, they own Chinese passports, and they have relatives throughout the mainland China.
Any action regarding it, win, lose or draw will be favorable in the eyes of the Chinese people.
Washington would also be inclined to fight on if the war were not going well. Like Beijing, it would view a war over Taiwan as a fight for regional dominance. The fact that such a war would probably begin with a Pearl Harbor–style missile attack on U.S. bases would make it even harder for an outraged American populace and its leaders to accept defeat. Even if the United States failed to prevent Chinese forces from seizing Taiwan, it couldn’t easily bow out of the war. Quitting without first severely damaging Chinese air and naval power in Asia would badly weaken Washington’s reputation, as well as its ability to defend remaining allies in the region.
Again nonsense.
Once the shooting starts there will be ZERO American presence in the Pacific. It will all be over. All the bases will be radioactive craters.
Both sides would have the capacity to keep fighting, moreover. The United States could summon ships, planes, and submarines from other theaters and use its command of the Pacific beyond the first island chain—which runs from Japan in the north through Taiwan and the Philippines to the south—to conduct sustained attacks on Chinese forces. For its part, China could dispatch its surviving air, naval, and missile forces for a second and third assault on Taiwan and press its maritime militia of coast guard and fishing vessels into service. Both the United States and China would emerge from these initial clashes bloodied but not exhausted, increasing the likelihood of a long, ugly war.
Again, such idiocy!
China and Russia are as one. Both share military equipment, data and operations. Any war against China would be one against Russia as well.
China would take over the Pacific.
Russia would take over the Atlantic.
Iran would take over the Mediterranean.
NATO would be in ruins.
America would be smouldering.
Australia would have enormous craters.
Japan would meekly tremble an back down with it's gaping craters.
Korea would be busy dealing with it's own problems.
Iraq it will NOT be.
BIGGER, LONGER, MESSIER
When great-power wars drag on, they get bigger, messier, and more intractable. Any conflict between the United States and China is likely to force both countries to mobilize their economies for war. After the initial salvos, both sides would hurry to replace munitions, ships, submarines, and aircraft lost in the early days of fighting. This race would strain both countries’ industrial bases, require the reorientation of their economies, and invite nationalist appeals—or government compulsion—to mobilize the populace to support a long fight.
China can do this. It has already mobilized.
America cannot. You can see this with the joke of a COVID response. America is terribly balkanized and has zero ability to do anything. heck! They can't even build a wall on the Mexican border, a walk-bridge in Florida, or repair highway bridges.
America has a make-believe economy based on an artificially inflated dollar. Were a war to break out, the value of the USD would become zero.
Long wars also escalate as the combatants look for new sources of leverage. Belligerents open new fronts and rope additional allies into the fight. They expand their range of targets and worry less about civilian casualties. Sometimes they explicitly target civilians, whether by bombing cities or torpedoing civilian ships. And they use naval blockades, sanctions, and embargoes to starve the enemy into submission. As China and the United States unloaded on each other with nearly every tool at their disposal, a local war could turn into a whole-of-society brawl that spans multiple regions.
Yes. The moment that the United States starts bombing China, all Hell would break lose. No American cities would survive.
Bigger wars demand more grandiose aims. The greater the sacrifices required to win, the better the ultimate peace deal must be to justify those sacrifices. What began as a U.S. campaign to defend Taiwan could easily turn into an effort to render China incapable of new aggression by completely destroying its offensive military power. Conversely, as the United States inflicted more damage on China, Beijing’s war aims could grow from conquering Taiwan to pushing Washington out of the western Pacific altogether.
The intro sentence is correct, the rest is fantasy.
There will be no American air power, no American naval power, and no American leadership. Instead, there will domestic turmoil, destruction, and while the "war" for Taiwan was envisioned as another long-duration war, it would instead be the death-blow to the United States as a nation.
All of this would make forging peace more difficult. The expansion of war aims narrows the diplomatic space for a settlement and produces severe bloodshed that fuels intense hatred and mistrust. Even if U.S. and Chinese leaders grew weary of fighting, they might still struggle to find a mutually acceptable peace.
More nonsense.
China, and Russia, can survive war. America cannot.
America is a mess, or haven’t you all been paying attention? video 2.2MB
GOING NUCLEAR
A war between China and the United States would differ from previous hegemonic wars in one fundamental respect: both sides have nuclear weapons. This would create disincentives to all-out escalation, but it could also, paradoxically, compound the dangers inherent in a long war.
There would be no escalation. It would be nuclear from the onset.
This is Chinese military doctrine.
For starters, both sides might feel free to shoot off their conventional arsenals under the assumption that their nuclear arsenals would shield them from crippling retaliation. Scholars call this the “stability-instability paradox,” whereby blind faith in nuclear deterrence risks unleashing a massive conventional war.
Chinese military writings often suggest that the PLA could wipe out U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in East Asia while China’s nuclear arsenal deterred U.S. attacks on the Chinese mainland.
On the flip side, some American strategists have called for pounding Chinese mainland bases at the outset of a conflict in the belief that U.S. nuclear superiority would deter China from responding in kind. Far from preventing a major war, nuclear weapons could catalyze one.
Unrealistic.
Chinese military doctrine is to release nuclear fury the moment their land is attacked.
They DON'T GIVE A FUCK.
Once that war is underway, it could plausibly go nuclear in three distinct ways. Whichever side is losing might use tactical nuclear weapons—low-yield warheads that could destroy specific military targets without obliterating the other side’s homeland—to turn the tide.
That was how the Pentagon planned to halt a Soviet invasion of central Europe during the Cold War, and it is what North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia have suggested they would do if they were losing a war today.
If China crippled U.S. conventional forces in East Asia, the United States would have to decide whether to save Taiwan by using tactical nuclear weapons against Chinese ports, airfields, or invasion fleets. This is no fantasy: the U.S. military is already developing nuclear-tipped, submarine-launched cruise missiles that could be used for such purposes.
Yes it would go nuclear, but not on the terms determined by the United States.
A local war could turn into a whole-of-society brawl that spans multiple regions.
China might also use nuclear weapons to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The PLA has embarked on an unprecedented expansion of its nuclear arsenal, and PLA officers have written that China could use nuclear weapons if a conventional war threatened the survival of its government or nuclear arsenal—which would almost surely be the case if Beijing was losing a war over Taiwan. Perhaps these unofficial claims are bluffs. Yet it is not difficult to imagine that if China faced the prospect of humiliating defeat, it might fire off a nuclear weapon (perhaps at or near the huge U.S. military base on Guam) to regain a tactical advantage or shock Washington into a cease-fire.
Such ignorance!
I wonder if they actually believe this garbage, or are just fabricating a fantasy for cash dollars.
As the conflict drags on, either side could also use the ultimate weapon to end a grinding war of attrition. During the Korean War, American leaders repeatedly contemplated dropping nuclear bombs on China to force it to accept a cease-fire. Today, both countries would have the option of using limited nuclear strikes to compel a stubborn opponent to concede. The incentives to do so could be strong, given that whichever side pulls the nuclear trigger first might gain a major advantage.
There will be no escalation.
It will be nuclear from the get-go, and Russia and China will control the entire event sequence. America would be trying desperately to catch up.
A final route to nuclear war is inadvertent escalation. Each side, knowing that escalation is a risk, may try to limit the other’s nuclear options. The United States could, for instance, try to sink China’s ballistic missile submarines before they hide in the deep waters beyond the first island chain.
Yet such an attack could put China in a “use it or lose it” situation with regard to its nuclear forces, especially if the United States also struck China’s land-based missiles and communication systems, which intermingle conventional and nuclear forces. In this scenario, China’s leaders might use their nuclear weapons rather than risk losing that option altogether.
There will be no escalation.
It will be nuclear from the get-go, and Russia and China will control the entire event sequence. America would be trying desperately to catch up.
AVOIDING ARMAGEDDON
There is no easy way to prepare for a long war whose course and dynamics are inherently unpredictable. Yet the United States and its allies can do four things to get ready for whatever comes—and, hopefully, prevent the worst from happening.
First, Washington can win the race to reload.
China will be much less likely to go to war if it knows it will be outgunned as the conflict drags on. Washington and Taipei should therefore aggressively stockpile ammunition and supplies.
For the United States, the critical assets are missiles capable of sinking China’s most valuable ships and aircraft from afar. For Taiwan, the key weapons are short-range missiles, mortars, mines, and rocket launchers that can decimate invasion fleets.
Both nations also need to be ready to churn out new weapons in wartime. Taiwanese factories will be obvious targets for Chinese missiles, so the United States should enlist the industrial might of other allies. Japan’s shipbuilding capacity, for example, could be retooled to produce simple missile barges rapidly and on a massive scale.
Crazy fantasy.
So the United States plans on out-manufacturing the manufacturing powerhouse. Uh huh. What a fantasy.
Second, the United States and Taiwan can demonstrate their ability to hang tough. In a long war, China could try to strangle Taiwan with a blockade, bombard it into submission, or take down U.S. and Taiwanese electrical grids and telecommunications networks with cyberattacks. It could use conventionally armed, hypersonic missiles to attack targets in the U.S. homeland and flood the United States with disinformation.
Countering such measures will require defensive preparations, such as securing critical networks; expanding Taiwan’s system of civilian shelters; and enlarging the island’s stockpiles of fuel, food, and medical supplies.
Complete ignorance of reality.
The ignorance of the actual on-the-street realities of Taiwan, and the proud American trans-gender forces is stunning.
China might use nuclear weapons to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Breaking a Chinese campaign of coercion also requires threatening Beijing with painful retaliation.
A third objective, therefore, is to own the escalation ladder. By preparing to blockade Chinese commerce and cut Beijing off from markets and technology in wartime, the United States and its allies can threaten to turn an extended conflict into an economic catastrophe for China.
By preparing to sink Chinese naval vessels anywhere in the western Pacific and destroy Chinese military infrastructure in other regions, Washington can threaten a generation’s worth of Chinese military modernization. And by developing the means to hit Chinese ports, airfields, and armadas with tactical nuclear weapons, the United States can deter China from initiating limited nuclear attacks.
Washington should confront Beijing with a basic proposition: the longer a war lasts, the more devastation China will suffer.
Bye Bye USA.
They FUCKING KNOW THAT.
And the way to prevent that from happening is to destroy the top 40 American cities.
It will be pretty fucking hard without cities, people, and an angry world ready to tear Americans limp to limb.
Because controlling escalation will be essential, the United States also needs options that allow it to dial up the punishment without necessarily dialing up the violence. By subtly demonstrating that it has the cyber-capabilities to cripple China’s critical infrastructure and domestic security system, for example, the United States can threaten to bring the war home to Beijing. Similarly, by improving its ability to suppress Chinese air defenses near Taiwan with cyberattacks, electronic warfare, and directed-energy weapons, the United States can increase its freedom of action while limiting the amount of physical destruction it wreaks on the mainland.
China is not Iraq. Look at a map why don't you.
Any escalatory moves risk ratcheting up the intensity of a conflict. So the final preparation Washington must make is to define victory down. A war between nuclear-armed great powers would not end with regime change or one side occupying the other’s capital. It would end with a negotiated compromise. The simplest settlement would be a return to the status quo: China stops attacking Taiwan in exchange for a pledge that the island will not seek formal independence and that the United States will not endorse it. To sweeten the deal, Washington could offer to keep its forces off Taiwan and out of the Taiwan Strait. Xi would be able to tell the Chinese people that he taught his enemies a lesson. The United States would have saved a strategically positioned democracy. That may not be a satisfying end to a hard-fought conflict. But in a long war between great powers, protecting vital U.S. interests while avoiding Armageddon is good enough.
As I said, this is a fantasy piece.
Any one actually taking this article seriously is a FUCKING IDIOT. And if they are in powerful policy making decisions then they DESERVE the "heat" that will come straight towards them.
Conclusions
I pulled out a laughable “article” that is apparently being taken seriously inside the Washington Beltway. I point out the pretty amazing errors in it, and lay down the law of ready vs. perception.
So here is a quick review of reality.
Chinese citizenry is 1600 million people. Every single one of them learned how to fire guns, operate weapons and perform military operations in first grade and throughout their youth. If you think that they would agree to any kind of assault you are out of your God Damn mind.
The entire population of the USA is only 330 million, of that only 1.3 million are in the Armed Forces. Which are spread out all over the globe.
Here’s a Chinese third grade mortar crew
When did you all learn how to fire mortars, arm and hit targets on military operations? The Chinese learn in third grade. video 6MB
You know, I get many comments that I do not publish. One of the comments that I have since deleted, but I will paraphrase here. It went like this…
"Playing pretend soldiers are nice and cute, but America is a warrior culture, with a long and glorious history. You simply cannot equate the Chinese play soldiers against a real modern and well-trained fighting force like the United States has."
Fifth grade students learning how to disable tanks
When did you learn how to do this? Do you really think that America’s great military can actually take on China? Video 16MB
China’s military are well armed, well trained, and very LETHAL
America couldn’t fight uneducated goat herders with cheap AK-47 clones. What makes everyone think that it can take on a peer-superior China with a peer-superior Russia? Video 6MB
You have to see things as the really are, not what you want to believe.
Here’s America today. How do you think it will be able to handle a war with a unified Russia and China? I do not. And you, if you were really honest with yourself wouldn’t either. Video 2.2MB
Everyone is questioning if America is still functioning.
It’s obvious. And no, a war is not going to make things better. it will make things far, far worse. video 2MB
Meanwhile…
The American psychopaths are not stopping for shit. Here’s on the Russian Front.
Sivkov: DPR border guards disrupted a special operation of German special forces in the Donbass
Today
The expert is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored.
According to military expert Konstantin Sivkov, British and German special forces tried to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). However, the Western saboteurs failed, as their operation was prevented by employees of the DPR border service. The analyst noted that the border guards managed to detain foreign special forces without a fight.
"The Americans are going to make a provocation and disappear. One thing is important: now there is actually another wave of hysteria about the fact that Russia is going to attack Ukraine. We are talking about the fact that they are purposefully going to put the Russian Federation in a position where it will be forced to take military measures.",- said the expert on the air of "Solovyov LIVE".
Sivkov is sure that such attempts at penetration should not be ignored. According to the analyst, such provocations are part of a plan to destabilize the situation in the Donbas. Similar actions are also directed against Russia. Washington wants Moscow to start a war, Sivkov believes.
Final Key Points…
In US war games, any war with Russia escalates to nuclear then to total destruction. Russia seems to be saying accept these demands or we’ll have a crisis the equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I feel concerned that both sides, esp the US do not understand how rapidly a conflict could go nuclear or how unwinnable and destructive that war would be. Even though Biden and Putin recently acknowledged such a war would be unwinnable, the US actions do not show show they really believe that.
[1] It is important to promote that a USA war with involving Taiwan / China will be a long one. This is because it will guarantee a long-duration revenue stream for the American military-industrial complex.
[2] It is important to promote the idea that the war will be conventional only and not go nuclear kinetic. That way, the war will permit Western allies participation.
But neither is true, and I am telling you all something quite different…
[3] If the USA fires one single weapon at Taiwan or the United States, the war will go HOT and Kinetic against America itself. Not just it’s surrogates.
This is BECAUSE Taiwan is part of China. So anyone attacking Taiwan will be attacking China. And China has a long-standing policy to produce measured responses.
Destroy one VTOL carrier, and watch yours get destroyed.
Launch one Bio-weapon attack against the Chinese people, and watch yours suffer from a substantive Bio-weapon attack.
Attack a Chinese city, watch yours get destroyed.
[4] China WILL use nuclear weapons.
This is because it is it's long-standing Chinese military doctrine.
That is the sole purpose of the hyper-velocity ICBM flights. It is to tell the Jack-asses in the United States that China WILL destroy American cities, and that there are no defenses that America can use. That has never changed.
[5] Russia and China WILL fight together.
This is because it's the SEO doctrine and all members will act together as one. This too has been telegraphed to the Western "leadership". Just because it is not in the mainstream media does not mean that the "leadership" is not aware of it.
Taken together, points [3], plus [4], plus [5] means…
[6] American cities will be blasted into the stone age if the USA starts invading China. To ignore that fact is dangerous. the only question is how many will be destroyed.
[7] It is in the benefit of the United Statesto have a USA-China conflict that is of long-duration and isolated to China and the South China Sea.
[8] It is to the benefit of China and Russiato stop the mad craziness of the United States once and for all. Whether the Ukraine, or Taiwan. All the provocations are to end because the presence of the provocations destabilizes world harmony.
[9] Thus, because of points, [6], [7] and [8] it is HIGHLY LIKELY that United states involvement fighting against China will result in the complete and utter fast and quick destruction of the United States.
This is a dangerous, dangerous “game” those fools in Washington DC are playing.
The Chinese are determined to fight to KILL.
It all starts in first grade.
So you think you can take on 1600 million soldiers? America’s military is 1.4 million troops. Or 1/100 of the size. You dunderheads! Are you fucking out of your God Damn mind? video 5MB
And a final RETORT
From a comment (that I did not publish) but is worthy to include here…
“MM is wrong because…
America is exceptional. It is blessed by God.
America is far stronger economically than China.
China has fallen into the “debt trap” with over 3 trillion dollars worth of debt.
America has a far stronger society than China. China is weak and it’s people are ready to overturn it once the central government crumbles.
The BRI is a sham to overthrow the world.
America has more and better factories than China.
The World loves America and hates China.
China only copies. It does not innovate.
China enslaves the minorities and has enormous prison concentration camps.
America has never lost a war.
America is a military culture.
Therefore, China doesn’t have a chance.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
As a student of history, I am amazed at how story after story repeats itself over and over and over. One of the themes that seems to be prevalent is the idea that one can be safe and secure behind high wall, moats, oceans, or huge enormous military forces. It isn’t true. History has shown time and time again, that what you think is your greatest invincibility, is actually your greatest weakness. Who am I referring to? Why the United States. Of course!
It’s an especially dumb day for anti-China propaganda. The Biden administration has imposed trade restrictions on 34 Chinese institutions on the unsubstantiated allegation that they are developing “brain control weaponry“, a claim the mass media have been all too happy to uncritically pass on to the public. Between that and the ridiculous reporting on Russian Havana Syndrome ray guns it’s like they’re literally trying to get everyone to wear tinfoil hats.
Then there’s the Tucker Carlson guest who just told Carlson’s massive audience that the US military needs to be full of “Type A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls.” It’s highly disturbing how much the mass media have been talking about war with China like it’s a foregone conclusion lately, almost as though they’re working to normalize that horrifying idea.
There’s also this new article for The Hill, hilariously titled “‘Allies’ China and Russia are ganging up on America”, about how the poor widdle US empire is being bullied by mean old Xi and Putin’s increasingly tight-knit collaboration. It is authored by Gordon Chang, who has been wrongly predicting the imminent collapse of China for decades, and is plainly absurd because the Moscow-Beijing alignment is in reality nothing other than the natural consequence of two nations realizing the need to work together against the globe-spanning power structure that is trying to bully them into submission.
The US military budget has once again increased despite the US ending a war this year, and despite its facing no real threats from any nation to its easily-defended shores. The increase has been largely justified by the need to “counter China” and includes billions in funding for the ongoing construction of long-range missile systems on the first island chain near the Chinese mainland, explicitly for the purpose of threatening China. One need only imagine what would happen if China began constructing a chain of long-range missile systems off a US coastline to understand who the actual aggressor is between these two powers.
-Caitlin Johnstone
The United States
For the last two centuries, America has been considered invincible. It was surround by the enormous “moats” of the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, a formidable military, and a manufacturing capability that was (by far) better than any other nation in the world. It’s people were robust and willing to fight for their nations, and the nations to the North and South were mere client surrogates. They were willing to do whatever the United States said.
Many inside America still believe this. They still believe that this is still the case.
They are WRONG.
Times have changed.
They believe this myth; That the United States can bomb the Dejesus out of any nation it likes, and will suffer zero consequences of it. Whether it is Syria, Iraq, Liberia, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, or even now the Ukraine or Taiwan. And no one will fight back at the American homeland. No one will attack back. At worst, maybe an improvised munition on the road or a burst or two from a cheaply made AK-47.
Nothing to worry about!
And I am here to tell you that the NEXT war will be on American soil. It is engineered that way. And it’s going to hurt. Really, really, bad.
Let me tell you a history story.
Did you know that there was once a great nation the size of America that existed after the fall of Rome. And no, I’m not talking about the British Empire. I am talking about the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Mongol conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate culminated in the horrific sack of Baghdad that effectively ended the Islamic Golden Age.
The Abbasid Caliphate is roughly the same size as the United States today.
The Islamic Golden Age—from the 8th to the mid-13th century—was one of the greatest periods of human flourishment in knowledge and progress, with Baghdad as its focal point.
Just like America.
A truly global repository of human knowledge, this Arab-Muslim imperial capital also welcomed—indeed encouraged—scholars from across the known world.
Just like America.
As its wealth and fame grew, more and more scholars and engineers were drawn to the city from all over civilization.
Just like America.
But in January 1258, a vast Mongol army reached the city’s perimeter and demanded that the caliph—al-Musta’sim, the nominal spiritual authority of the Islamic world—surrender.
History of Baghdad: The Greatest City in the World
If you can imagine the shock waves, were Washington DC razed to the ground tomorrow, you’d be getting close to the horror that was about to accompany the Sack of Baghdad in 1258.
Founded 500 years earlier, Baghdad’s population had reached one million within a century, making it the world’s largest, most prosperous, and celebrated city.
If one thinks of London in 1897—the year when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee—the English city on the Thames was by then the largest and most important city on earth. In 1897, London was peerless in the world, with nowhere else coming close to matching its power and influence. It was the capital, and the fulcrum, of the British Empire.
If you can imagine the shock waves, were London razed to the ground tomorrow, you would be close to the horror that was about to accompany the Sack of Baghdad in 1258.
This is a transcript from the video series Turning Points in Middle Eastern History. Watch it now, Wondrium.
A Devastating Moment in History for Muslims in the Middle East
For many historians, the arrival of the Mongols into the heart of the Muslim faith and empire is the single most devastating moment in the history of the Muslim Middle East.
It’s easy to see why—and hard to argue otherwise—because the Sack of Baghdad would mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age.
Rather than submit, the Abbasid caliph challenged the Mongols to attempt to storm his city, if they dared.
The nomadic army from Asia—led by Hulagu Khan, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons—did indeed dare.
Doing what they are most famous for, the Mongols thrashed Baghdad.
In 10 days of unremitting violence and destruction, Baghdad and its inhabitants were completely and utterly vanquished.
Almost without exception, the population was either put to the sword or sold into slavery.
The River Tigris ran red—to cite one of the most over-quoted, and overwrought phrases in history—with the blood of slaughtered men, women, and children.
After this, every building of note in Baghdad—including mosques, palaces, and markets—was utterly destroyed, among them the world-famous House of Wisdom.
Hundreds of thousands of priceless manuscripts and books were tossed into the river, clogging the arterial waterway with so many texts, according to eyewitnesses, that soldiers could ride on horseback from one side to the other.
Of course, the river turned from red to black with ink.
Who Were the Mongols?
The Sack of Baghdad fits, like a hinge, almost exactly in the middle of two defining dates in the history of Islam, from the founding of the faith in the year 622 to the end of the last caliphate in 1924.
Even by the standards of the day, the destruction was shocking, and the results long-lasting, if not permanent.
The Mongols’ name during this period in history was a byword for destruction.
Who were they and where did they come from?
Is there any reason to think that they were any more destructive than other peoples at the time?
The Mongols, an ethnic group, originating in north and central Asia, were typically pastoral peoples, whose nomadic lifestyle inevitably brought them into conflict with more settled populations.
Probably the best example of how settled peoples tried to restrict their otherwise free movement is the Great Wall of China. The wall was essentially built to hold back incursions of their Mongolian neighbors to the north.
This preference for nomadism over a settled existence is central to the view of the Mongols as especially destructive.
As one writer put it, while Muslims built cities—Baghdad and Cairo, for example—Mongols destroyed them. Does this mean that the Mongols were inherently more ruthless or violent than Muslims or crusading Christians? Not necessarily. Rather, it shows that their priority, in terms of conquest, was for land, for grazing—for space even—rather than for cities and confinement.
As one writer put it, while Muslims built cities—Baghdad and Cairo, for example—Mongols destroyed them.
One thing that came out of the Mongols’ lack of interest in seizing cities was their enhanced mobility.
Often living on a diet of mare’s milk—or blood, if the mares were not lactating—Mongol custom meant that they never washed their clothes. This, along with a heavy fat diet—both milk and meat—no doubt accounted for the Mongols’ reputation as a very smelly, as well as scary, foe.
The Fierce Mongol Warriors
Contemporary chroniclers tell us that Mongol warriors were most comfortable in the saddle, literally, it seems.
If they had to move more than a hundred yards, or so, they’d jump on a horse and ride. Also, all warriors owned numerous mounts, allowing them to cover larger distances than more traditional cavalry found in the Near East and Europe. While they rode light into battle, the Mongols used harnessed oxen to pull their heavier and more cumbersome possessions from place to place.
An important facet of the Mongol way of war and conquest was their use of terror as a tactic. The banging of metal pots and the rattling of bells was the usual way of announcing the start of a battle. This created such a din that defenders of a city under siege would find it almost impossible to hear their officers’ commands.
Whenever they entered new territory, the Mongols would offer the local rulers an opportunity to surrender. But in the language of many a salesman, this was a one-time offer.
For those foolish enough not to surrender immediately, conquest and destruction without quarter would be their lot, and the people of Baghdad knew this.
Setting the Scene for Catastrophe Before the Sack of Baghdad
In 1206, just 52 years before the Sack of Baghdad, the Mongol Empire was formed and led by the legendary Genghis Khan.
Khan is originally a Mongolian word that means military leader, or sovereign, a king, in English. Being accepted as the Great Khan effectively elevated Genghis to the status of an emperor. His grandsons now ruled the Mongolian Empire.
In addition to Hulagu Khan, who led the attack against Baghdad, there was Kublai Khan, conqueror of China, and Mongke Khan, who became the Great Khan and sent his brother Hulagu to Baghdad.
Hulagu marched at the head of perhaps the largest Mongolian army ever assembled, consisting of as many as 150,000 troops, with Baghdad one of several goals for this mission. First, Hulagu was told to subdue southern Iran, which he did.
Next, he was to destroy the infamous Assassins.
A breakaway Nizari-Ismaili-Shia sect, founded in the 11th century, the Assassins had achieved infamy for the political assassinations—hence, the term we use today—carried out by certain of their number.
Although it was known that the Assassins were based at the castle of Alamut in northwestern Iran, many of their adversaries thought they were somehow invincible because of the stealth they typically employed.
Hulagu Khan proved this was not the case.
After destroying the Assassins and their castle fortress at Alamut, Baghdad was the next stop on his list.
The majority of Hulagu Khan’s men were Mongolian warriors, but the force also contained Christians, including soldiers led by the king of Armenia, Frankish Crusaders from the Principality of Antioch, and Georgians.
The majority of Hulagu Khan’s men were Mongolian warriors, but the force also contained Christians, including soldiers led by the king of Armenia, Frankish Crusaders from the Principality of Antioch, and Georgians. There were also Muslim soldiers from various Turkic and Persian tribes, and 1,000 Chinese engineers—artillery specialists, who were always in demand when the need arose to reduce walls to rubble.
The Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasids—the third Islamic caliphate to rule the Muslim Middle East since the death of Muhammad—had risen to power in 750, after overthrowing their rivals, the Damascus-based Umayyads.
Taking their name from one of Muhammad’s uncles, Abbas, the Abbasids quickly took control of almost all Umayyad lands, and so found themselves ruling over an enormous empire that covered the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, Syria, Iraq, Persia and beyond to modern Afghanistan.
A new Abbasid caliphate deserved a new capital, which they established in Baghdad, in 762, and immediately built it into an imperial city worthy of their greatness.
A new Abbasid caliphate deserved a new capital, which they established in Baghdad, in 762, and immediately built it into an imperial city worthy of their greatness.
Within a couple of generations, Baghdad had attracted some of the world’s greatest scholars.
Alongside Persian scholarship and cultural traditions—and Arab authority—one saw people from other parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Numerous Jews and Christians also pursued studies there.
Baghdad: A City of Learning
Among innumerable libraries and other centers of learning in ancient Baghdad, the greatest of them all was founded by the early Abbasid caliphs.
Called the Bayt al-Hikma—or House of Wisdom—this was the place that the best scholars and professors aspired to reach—not just Muslims from the Islamic world.
Imagine if you will, all of America’s Ivy League Colleges rolled into one; add to those the science and technological power of Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, and Berkley, then add Oxford and Cambridge to the mix, and the world’s great non-English-speaking universities. It comes close to what the House of Wisdom was like—except it was even more influential.
Imagine if you will all of America’s Ivy League Colleges rolled into one; add to those the science and technological power of Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, and Berkley, then add Oxford and Cambridge to the mix, and the world’s great non-English-speaking universities. It comes close to what the House of Wisdom was like—except it was even more influential.
There were two distinct sides to scholarship in Baghdad. One was translation work, with texts from India, Persia, and Greece gathered in huge numbers.
Texts originally composed in Persian, Sanskrit, Greek, Syriac, and Chinese were all eagerly rendered into Arabic.
Combined with this extensive translation work, however, was a wealth of original scholarship, funded and encouraged by the caliphs.
The arts and sciences alike were covered, so that advances were made in almost every imaginable subject, including mathematics, medicine, astronomy, physics, cartography, zoology, and poetry.
A Weak-Willed Caliph in Thirteenth-Century Baghdad
In the year 1242, al-Musta’sim became the 37th caliph in the Abbasid line. Baghdad’s glory days were behind it.
By this stage, the Abbasid caliphs were largely figureheads, propped up by outside forces.
The Abbasid caliphs were largely figureheads, propped up by outside forces.
If they were important at all, it was as the inheritors of Islamic orthodoxy and as beacons of cultural greatness, but not as a political power to be obeyed nor a military force to be feared.
Indeed, the Abbasids already were in the habit of paying an annual tribute to the Mongols. Despite this, the city was still large and prosperous.
A weak-willed, even dissolute character, al-Musta’sim was happier hanging out with musicians and drinking wine than he was ruling…
Alas for Baghdad, the court of history doesn’t rate the caliph as the greatest of his line.
A weak-willed, even dissolute character, al-Musta’sim was happier hanging out with musicians and drinking wine than he was ruling an already weakened empire.
At this stage the leadership had taken to parties and image creation, not any actual ruling roles.
In 1251, the Abbasids sent a delegation to pay homage on the coronation of Hulagu’s brother, Mongke, when he became the Great Khan, but this was no longer considered enough.
Mongols Demand Submission by Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim
Mongke insisted that the Abbasid Caliph al-Musta’sim come in person to Karakorum, the 13th century capital of the Mongol Empire, in the north of modern Mongolia, to fully submit to Mongol rule.
The Caliph al-Musta’sim refused to do so.
The final showdown between the Mongols and the Abbasids was set.
The final showdown between the Mongols and the Abbasids was set.
With the Mongol horde marching on Baghdad, a clash was inevitable, although this wouldn’t be the first encounter between the Abbasids and the Mongols.
In the recent past, the Abbasids had managed a couple of small-scale military victories against Mongol forces.
China’s first big-deck amphibious assault ship, a huge vessel that was built in a miraculously short amount of time, caught fire on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. Photos and video showing the ship billowing large clouds of black smoke hit Chinese social media earlier in the day. The warship, which is the first of the new Type 075 class, was resting alongside the pier at its birthplace, Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai, when the blaze broke out.
However, these were soon overturned and weren’t part of any trend of a militarily resurgent Abbasid Empire.
July 24, 2020. Navy officials said the fire aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship undergoing maintenance and upgrades at a port in San Diego, was put out last Thursday. Reaching temperatures up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit (about 650 degrees Celsius), it melted aluminum and incinerated wiring, plastics and combustibles like drywall, bedding and office supplies, while filling the 850-foot (260-meter) vessel with thick smoke. The ship was gutted, and hauled off to the scrap yard.
Their days of martial glory were long gone.
Adding fuel to the fire, al-Musta’sim is said to have slighted Shia Muslims by various acts and decrees.
He should have known better, as his grand vizier, or senior advisor, was himself a Shia Muslim.
This vizier is said to have sided with the Mongols, encouraging their takeover of the city, perhaps imagining that he’d be given control of Baghdad by a grateful Hulagu.
If this is what he thought, he didn’t know anything about Hulagu.
A Difficult Decision for the Caliph to Surrender to the Mongols
The caliph was faced with a choice between surrendering to the Mongol leader and presumably saving his city, or building up his army, and riding out to meet the invading warriors in combat.
It likely never crossed the caliph’s mind that he should probably surrender rather than send threats to Hulagu.
Al-Musta’sim discovered a third option: Doing nothing.
Baghdad was surrounded, and al-Musta’sim realized too late that the Mongol army was far larger and stronger than he’d been told.
The rest of the Muslim world wasn’t about to rush to his rescue either.
President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to “lock arms” and demonstrate democracies can deliver. Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to bolster democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to challenges to America’s democratic institutions and traditions. “This is an urgent matter,” Biden said in remarks to open the two-day virtual summit. “The data we’re seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction.”
The siege of Baghdad began on January 29, 1258.
The Mongols quickly built a palisade and ditch and brought siege engines, such as covered battering rams that protected their men from the defenders’ arrows and other missiles, and catapults to attack the city’s walls.
At this stage, al-Musta’sim made a last-ditch attempt to negotiate with Hulagu and was rebuffed.
Al-Musta’sim surrendered Baghdad to Hulagu five days later, on February 10.
Adding to the distress of those inside the city, Hulagu and his horde didn’t make any attempt to enter the city for three days.
The stress must have been awful.
A Glimmer of Compassion for Baghdad Christians
Late in life, Hulagu became a Buddhist.
At this moment, however, the only sign of compassion he showed was towards Baghdad’s Nestorian Christian community.
Nestorianism was a form of Christianity that church authorities had declared heretical in the 5th century.
It stressed that the divine and human aspects of Jesus’s nature were separate.
Many Nestorians had moved to Persia, where they’d lived ever since.
Hulagu, upon entering Baghdad, told the Nestorians to lock themselves in their church and ordered his men not to touch them.
What was the reason for this act of kindness before the bloodbath that was to follow?
Simply that Hulagu’s mother and his favorite wife were both Nestorian Christians.
Mongols Execute Baghdad Notables
About 3,000 of Baghdad’s notables—including officials, members of the Abbasid family, and the caliph himself—pleaded for clemency. But all 3,000 were put to death without compunction…
With the Nestorians secure, Hulagu allowed his army an unfettered week of rape, pillage, and murder to celebrate their victory.
About 3,000 of Baghdad’s notables—including officials, members of the Abbasid family, and the caliph himself—pleaded for clemency.
But all 3,000 were put to death without compunction; all, that is, except for the caliph. He was held prisoner for a little while longer, perhaps in part so that he could see the full extent of what befell his capital.
Estimates of the death toll range from 90,000 at the lowest end to one million at the other. Apart from being a conveniently round number, the population of Baghdad was around a million, and the historical record tells us not everyone was killed.
Whatever the actual number, it included the army that had dared resist Hulagu’s advance, and the civilians, who had no choice either way.
Men, women, and children down to babes in arms were put to the sword or clubbed to death. Little mercy was shown unless it was of a quick rather than a lingering death.
Death of a Caliph
The Caliph al-Musta’sim was forced to watch these murders and the plundering of his treasury and palaces. Hulagu taunted him that, with so much gold and so many jewels, he’d have been better off spending some of these riches on building up a bigger army.
As for how the caliph met his end, one account says he was locked in his treasury, surrounded by his wealth, and left alone to starve to death. As colorful as this account is, it doesn’t sound likely, given the widespread looting that took place, nor is it corroborated by any sources.
A more plausible account, as reported by several chroniclers, goes like this: Hulagu had been warned by his astronomers that royal blood shouldn’t be spilled onto the earth. If it were, the earth would reject it, and earthquakes and natural destruction would follow.
If we consider his record, one might not think Hulagu an especially cautious man. However, in this case, he plotted the safer course.
The caliph was rolled in carpets, which would catch any blood spilled, and then he was trampled to death by his own cavalry. Obviously upset at the foolishness and idiocy of their own leadership.
For the first time since the death of Muhammad, 636 years earlier, Islam had no Caliph whose name could be quoted in Friday prayers.
Destruction of the City of Baghdad
If you’re looking for an example of a city razed to the ground, Baghdad in 1258 would be a good choice.
Apart from the human casualties, there was the destruction of the 500-year old city itself. Fires were set so that the fragrant scent of sandalwood and other aromatics was smelled up to 30 miles away. If you’re looking for an example of a city razed to the ground, Baghdad in 1258 would be a good choice. After a week, Hulagu ordered his camp out of the city, and moved upwind, away from the stench of rotting corpses.
Hulagu left Baghdad a broken and depopulated city.
Even if those left alive had wanted to rebuild, they lacked the numbers, the resources, and the skills to do so. The death and destruction were such that it would be more than a decade before anyone from Baghdad performed the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
In attacking Baghdad, Hulagu also destroyed the network of canals that irrigated the arable land thereabouts. Famine and plague followed the Mongol horde to Baghdad as elsewhere. Their scorched-earth tactics make it easy to see why they’re often tagged with a reputation as the most destructive of all the great empires.
The United States will be sacked and burned to the ground because the American leadership refuses to coexist on equal terms with the rest of the world.
The United States will be broken up into smaller "nations" and each one will possess a new form of governance. No thread of the failed American "democracy" will endure.
Conclusion
Today, the United States is no longer geographically isolated and protected. The huge distances between their “targeted enemies” no longer makes an difference. No longer can leadership in Washington DC order attacks against Asia and believe in absolute confidence that their offices, their homes, and their daily routines will continue as always.
No longer an the United States have staff sitting inside military bases in safety while they direct remote drone strikes by robot. In the future, they will be pulverized into oblivion.
Chinese hyper-velocity missile.
What we are witnessing today is the same exact ignorance and ego of the leadership of the United States what we saw with the Abbasid Caliphate, and I argue that it’s destruction will be just as harsh, and just as long lasting.
While I urge pleas to everyone to stop this madness, and to step out of the “echo chambers” that they inhabit. No one is doing so. Such as this old dinosaur in Washington DC that wants to destroy China because it is using “mind control weapons” to control the American people!
China must be destroyed at all costs to preserve American supremacy!
Pretty fucking piss-poor “mind control” weapons if you ask me. Most of America can’t wait to bomb China into dust.
And you all know, the fear-mongering that is raising the fears of Americans isn’t doing much else. China and Russia are plowing ahead. Just like the Mongols did. They know that they are in a position of superiority. And whether it happens today, or in five years, thefuture of America depends on it’s leadership.
How do you think they are going to handle this historical moment?
The DF-17 has amazed American military analysis. From being completely unknown, to full massive production and operational deployment of DF-17 hyper-velocity nuclear missiles.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
A soft landing for America 20 years from now? Don’t bet on it. The demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that by 2025, it could all be over except for the shouting.
The screaming.
The writhing, and…
…the dying.
Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed.
It’s typically a long, long, looonnnggg build up.
And then, something snaps.
And it all unravels…
Like an over-wound spring.
We know this from history: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood quite soon for the United States, ending within the next few years.
It’s all going to go “belly up”…
Economic (Health of the Economy)
Social (Social unrest, and a collapse of norms.)
Military (Attempts at creating large wars.)
Industrial (Jump starting the manufacturing base.)
Technology (Investments in R&D, NPD and innovation.)
Financial (Value of the USD)
The following is from the Kuntsler Blog also known as “Cluster-fuck nation”. He usually have some nice and pointed points, but this is a crown jewel. In this observation he talks about the major miscalculation(s) in economic policy inside the Washington DC beltway and how it will manifest in “heartland America” when the entire “deck of cards” come tumbling down.
This is a full reprint, all credit to the author. Reprinted to fit this venue with only minor editing as necessary.
We will start with this article, and the follow up with a second one, back to back…
Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays
A nation literally falling apart certainly might want to Build Back Better, but it also might want to consider building back differently, consistent with the signals that reality is sending to humankind these days.
For instance, the signals that the old industrial paradigm is coming to an end, and that the furnishings and accessories of it may not be the ones that humankind actually requires going forward.
Alas, the psychology of previous investment tends to dictate that societies pound their capital — if they still have any —down a rat-hole in the vain and desperate attempt to keep old rackets going.
And this is the essence of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill; a colossal confection of government over-reach with its thin cake layers, cloyingly thick “social justice” frosting, and its giant cherry-on-top of drawing on “capital” that doesn’t exist.
The main racket is the ongoing effort to replace a transactional economy of individual enterprise with the managerial state (that attempts to allocate all resources and direct markets).
We’ve seen that movie before.
It beats a path directly to totalitarian tyranny, and that is already sickeningly visible in the pre-production activities for the new movie.
With social media assisting government to set up total control of its citizens lives — actually copying the techniques already operating in China.
Some pieces of the bill are just plain tragic.
Like the effort to prop up mass motoring by switching out electric cars for the old gasoline-powered cars that have ruled the land for a century.
It’s an appealing fantasy, of course…
…but the electric car thing ain’t a’gonna happen.
Not at the scale envisioned, not unless the government plans to buy the electric cars and give them away to everybody, and that’s rather a stretch.
First, the whole mass motoring racket is falling apart more on its financial model than on whether the cars move by gasoline or electricity.
Americans are used to buying cars on installment loans, and, with the middle-class withering away, there are ever-fewer credit-worthy borrowers for those loans (for ever more expensive cars).
Soon, as the debt markets wobble, there will also be even less hallucinated capital (“money”) to loan out to this shrinking pool of borrowers.
Second, the decrepit US electric grid can’t handle the charging needs of such a gigantic electric car fleet (and fixing the grid alone would be a trillion-dollar project).
Third, the manufacturing of electric cars depends on scarce rare mineral resources that are not readily available in the US, but controlled by foreign nations.
Fourth, car-making utterly depends on far-flung international supply lines for parts and electronics.
This is occurring at a time when the integrated global economy is cracking up under the strain of desperate competition for dwindling resources and the ill-will generated by that.
More… There are yet more kinks in the electric car scheme but those are enough.
MM Comments.
Of course he's talking about the Untied States. The rest of the world doesn't really have this problem. In China, for instance, most public transportation is electric, as is a sizable portion of the private automobile market.
Of course, this whole initiative is in the service of preserving a set of living arrangements that is going obsolete…
… namely, suburbia.
The previous investment represented by all the housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, malls, office parks, and super-highways pretty much drove the American economy since the Second World War.
It’s understandable that we would be desperate to keep it all running.
As well as fix the pieces that are falling apart, because it’s where we put most of our national wealth.
It’s the whole American Dream in one nifty package.
And, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, in such a big country, with so much cheap land, and all that oil.
But now things have changed and reality is sending us clear signals that we have to live differently.
The effort to oppose reality is apt to be ruinous for us.
A thumping sense of triumph attended the roll-out of the Build Back Better infrastructure bill…
… at least on the Democrats’ side, especially with all the chocolate Easter eggs for “social justice”…
…lodged in the $1.9 trillion basket.
I imagine it will mark the Biden regime’s high point of esprit.
By the time Congress churns through it all, the financial markets will be sending florid distress signals of deepening instability…
And, with Covid lockdowns ending (or even if they resume), warm weather will bring out people angry about one thing or another into the streets.
And a number of pending legal matters — the Derek Chauvin verdict, the Durham investigation, the Hunter Biden case at DOJ, and perhaps the burgeoning and rather sinister new Matt Gaetz melodrama…
… will stir the pot that the American zeitgeist is brewing in.
With plumes of chaos wafting over the land.
By fall, Build Back Better might transmogrify into the ominous question: build back anything?
Clusterfuck Nation
For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays
The people pretending to run the world’s financial affairs do.
The more layers of abstract game-playing they add to the existing armatures of unreality they’ve already constructed…
…the more certain it becomes that they will blow up all the support systems…
…support systems of a sunsetting hyper-tech economy that now has no safe lane to continue running in.
Virtually all the big nations are doing this now in desperation.
This is because they don’t understand that the hyper-tech economy is hostage to the deteriorating economics of energy.
Basically fossil fuels, and oil especially.
The macro mega-system can’t grow anymore.
We’re now in the de-growth phase of a dynamic that pulsates through history, as everything in the universe pulsates.
We attempted to compensate for de-growth with debt, borrowing from the future.
But debt only works in the youthful growth phases of economic pulsation, when the prospect of being paid back is statistically favorable.
Now in the elder de-growth phase, the prospect of paying back debts, or even servicing the interest, is statistically dismal.
The amount of racked-up debt worldwide has entered the realm of the laughable.
So, the roughly twenty-year experiment in Central Bank credit magic, as a replacement for true capital formation, has come to its grievous end.
Hence, America under the pretend leadership of Joe Biden ventures into the final act of this melodrama, which will end badly and probably pretty quickly.
They are about to call in the financial four horsemen of apocalypse:
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT),
A “command” economy,
Universal Basic Income (UBI, “helicopter” money for the people), and
the “Build Back Better” infrastructure scheme.
MMT
MMT is the idea that a nation which claims a monopoly on issuing money can “create” new money ad infinitum with no negative consequences.
That is, we can “lend” ourselves money (borrow it into existence) without having to worry about paying it back.
The theory caught on only because that’s what we’ve done for two decades and, so far, it hasn’t destroyed the banking system…
…though debt turned exponential, which is to say ruinous, only recently…
… so we won’t have to stand by long to see how this experiment works out.
Note this: MMT completes the divorce between productive activity and capital formation, that is, prosperity without wealth.
A “command” economy
A “command” economy means that government increasingly attempts to take over economic enterprise.
It does so to replace x-million individual economic choices of freely-acting people in a society with bureaucratic central planning.
MM Comments.
It is usually a complete and absolute failure. The sole lone exception is China, and it really isn't a "command" economy at all. Just a "top driven" one.
UBI
UBI is the primary feature of that because, in a command economy, production is mostly pretend, so you just have to give people money (for nothing).
Remember the old basic operating system of the Soviet Union, stated succinctly as: We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.
Got that?
Build Back Better
The idea behind “Build Back Better” is to renovate the infrastructure of a hyper-tech economy that actually no longer exists.
Why?
Because we are in the contraction phase of an historic pulsation or cycle.
It is leaving us with lots of tech and less production, trending toward zero.
Nobody flogging this slogan actually knows what it ought to mean under the circumstances, which is to go with the flow of the reality of this contraction:
To downsize, downscale, and re-localize all our activities to bring them back into sync with actual productivity…
… that is, raising food, making real stuff, and trading it. Again, it’s the energy dynamic, stupid.
To get to that point, we’re going to shed the massive over-burden of financial game-playing that has pretended to represent our economy.
That means stock valuations and bond prices will vaporize along with the derivative activities concocted for trading gainfully in these now-phantom representations of capital.
If that happens sooner rather than later, we won’t even be able to pretend to Build Back Better the interstate highways, the electric grid, airports, and all the other stuff in the “infrastructure” folder.
Indeed, a lot of that would be malinvestment folly now because we’re nearing the end of mass motoring and commercial aviation as we’ve known them.
If we even have electricity twenty-five years from now, it will come from much-reduced grids on a much more regional basis.
The bottom line for all this is that pretty soon every corner of the country will be on its own amid quite a bit of social disorder and financial wreckage.
So, whatever energy you actually can marshal to Build Back Better, save it for your town or your local community.
And remember, all of the attempts by a national government to control these events…
… and coerce its citizens in the service of that…
… will only lead to a more ineffectual and impotent national government that nobody has faith in…
… confirming the fact…
…that you are on your own.
Yikes!
All things end…
Have no doubt: when Washington’s global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life.
Even when the American government tries to distract from the collapse by launching a war.
This little quote was written over a decade ago, in 2010, in Salon…
By 2020, according to current plans, the Pentagon will throw a military Hail Mary pass for a dying empire.
It will launch a lethal triple canopy of advanced aerospace robotics that represents Washington's last best hope of retaining global power despite its waning economic influence.
By that year, however, China's global network of communications satellites, backed by the world's most powerful supercomputers, will also be fully operational, providing Beijing with an independent platform for the weaponization of space and a powerful communications system for missile- or cyber-strikes into every quadrant of the globe.
-Salon 2010
As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society…
…regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation.
As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.
Available economic, educational, and military data indicate that, when it comes to U.S. global power, negative trends has aggregated rapidly and are likely to reach a critical mass no later than 2025.
The American Century, proclaimed so triumphantly at the start of World War II, is already tattered and fading and by 2025, its eighth decade, and could (very probably) end up being history.
But don’t worry!
Here’s a number of articles that make the point that there is a significant difference between a collapse and a crisis.
And while not explicitly spelled out directly, it is implied that the worst possible thing that might happen is yet another economic crisis, not an economic collapse.
Economic Depressions vs Collapse
To begin with, I think it’s important to differentiate between economic collapse and economic depression.
A depression is a rather normal part of the market cycle.
As Adam Smith points out in Wealth of Nations, these occasionally happen as the market corrects imbalances within itself.
Maybe there’s some form of bubble akin to the Dutch Tulip Bubble of the 1600s where the price of rare tulip bulbs increased to preposterous levels before people lost entire fortunes when the market corrected itself.
Who knew?
The point is that economic depression is rather normal.
Panicked investors withdrew billions from money market accounts where businesses keep cash to fund day-to-day operations.
If withdrawals had gone on for even a week, and if the Fed and the U.S. government had not stepped in to shore up the financial sector, the entire economy would likely have ground to a halt.
Trucks would have stopped rolling.
Grocery stores would have run out of food, and businesses would have been forced to shut down.
That’s how close the U.S. economy came to a real collapse—and how vulnerable it is to another one.
Will the U.S Economy Collapse?
A U.S. economy collapse is unlikely. When necessary, the government can act quickly to avoid a total collapse.
MM Comment
Nonsense. Compare the US Economy with the Chinese economy.
Most of the CCP government debts are infrastructure = investment. If they need cash, they can simply privatised.
China have a lot of high quality SOEs, they not only make money and contributed to government tax revenue, but their stocks can be used by government to fund social services such as 10% of selected SOEs share are used for age care in China without the need to increase tax.
China Economy benefited from government infrastructure and water redirection strategies, as a result there are new growing opportunities to the economy. Government revenues are healthy with big potential to growth further.
So, no worries with the current china debt level. Beside, the CCP does not give tax Payer money to too big to fail private businesses. when they billed out a private business , they took over the ownership. Last year, there is a private bank become state own.
However, Western debts are given to wall street for speculative activities from real estate to stock markets. These businesses don't pay tax, they only bribe the politicians with campaign money, and enrich those most corrupt politicians with speech fees, book deals etc.
The super rich in the West keep taking from the tax payers by bribing the politicians and not giving back to the society.
So sources of western government revenue become narrower, national and household debt keep rising at radicurous speed. these are real debt with no ability to repay.
So western governmen keep taxing the 99% with yearly rising service fees, council rate, all kind of fines. These policies affect the average people buying power, hence affecting the people buying power. Thus, domestic consumption as one of the major pillars of Western GDP contracted, the economy in trouble.
As rich people don't pay tax, the 99% running out of money. As a result, small and medium sized businesses suffered, tax revenue for government reduced. So trump think that trade war is easy to win, he can raise tax from China, but he failed miserably.
US will collapsed once RMB successfully replace the dollar as world trading currency, when the ability to continue print money without inflation in US is gone, US dollar will collapse, economy will collapse.
Hope the above make sense.
Cheers
<redacted>
Demand would outstrip supply of food, gas, and other necessities.
If the collapse affected local governments and utilities, then water and electricity might no longer be available.
A U.S. economic collapse would create global panic.
MM Comment
Most of the world has expected this collapse for decades and have put in place systems to mitigate any American-centrist collapse. Certainly the five-eyes nations of Canada, UK, NZ and Australia will be negatively affected, but the rest of the world will not be so directly affected.
The USA does not own, run or dictate to the world.
Investors would rush to other currencies, such as the yuan, euro, or even gold. It would create not just inflation, but hyperinflation, as the dollar lost value to other currencies.
If you want to understand what life is like during a collapse, think back to the Great Depression. The stock market crashed on Black Thursday. By the following Tuesday, it was down 25%.
Many investors lost their life savings that weekend.
By 1932, one out of four people was unemployed.
Wages for those who still had jobs fell precipitously—manufacturing wages dropped 32% from 1929 to 1932.
U.S. gross domestic product was cut nearly in half.
Thousands of farmers and other unemployed workers moved to California and elsewhere in search of work.
Two-and-a-half million people left the Midwestern Dust Bowl states.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t rebound to its pre-Crash level until 1954.
MM Comment
Everything in America today is an illusion. The GDP is artificially skewed in favor of the fantastic wealth held by the 1%. Were they to lose 30% of their wealth, the GDP for the nation could possibly drop to a mere tiny fraction of it's value.
When the curtain comes falling down everything that is fake and an illusion becomes clear for the world to see.
Collapse Versus Crisis
An economic crisis is not the same as an economic collapse. As painful as it was, the 2008 financial crisis was not a collapse. Millions of people lost jobs and homes, but basic services were still provided.
Other past financial crises seemed like a collapse at the time, but are barely remembered now.
1970s Stagflation
The OPEC oil embargo and President Richard Nixon’s abolishment of the gold standard triggered double-digit inflation. The government responded to this economic downturn by freezing wages and labor rates to curb inflation.7 The result was a high unemployment rate. Businesses, hampered by low prices, could not afford to keep workers at unprofitable wage rates.
1981 Recession
The Fed raised interest rates in a bid to end double-digit inflation.
That created the worst recession since the Great Depression. President Ronald Reagan cut taxes and increased government spending to end it.
1989 Savings and Loan Crisis
One thousand banks closed after improper real estate investments turned sour. Charles Keating and other Savings & Loan bankers had mis-used bank depositor’s funds. The consequent recession triggered an unemployment rate as high as 7.5%. The government was forced to bail out some banks to the tune of $124 billion.
Post-9/11 Recession
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 sowed nationwide apprehension and prolonged the 2001 recession—and unemployment of greater than 10%—through 2003. The United States’ response, the War on Terror, has cost the nation $6.4 trillion, and counting.
2008 Financial Crisis
The early warning signs of the 2008 Financial Crisis were rapidly falling housing prices and increasing mortgage defaults in 2006. Left untended, the resulting subprime mortgage crisis, which panicked investors and led to massive bank withdrawals, spread like wildfire across the financial community. The U.S. government had no choice but to bail out “too big to fail” banks and insurance companies, like Bear Stearns and AIG, or face both national and global financial catastrophes.
2020 Recession
It is too soon to tally up the total costs of the 2020 global health crisisCoronavirus pandemic—the crisis is still ongoing. Already we have seen worldwide supply-chain interruptions, heightened volatility and steep losses in financial markets, and sharp slowdowns in the travel and hospitality industries.
How much economic cost should we expect? According to the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development, the global economic hit could reduce global growth rates to 0.5% and cost the global economy as much as $2 trillion for 2020.
So what is going to happen?
I am not really all that good in predicting future events. You know, it’s all a very personal event that lies upon your world-line template. But regardless as to what your template map looks like we can make a couple of basic and reasonable statements…
America is deep, deep in debt.
There are no efforts to control this debt, or slow down spending.
This is not sustainable.
Since it is not sustainable, there will come a time when this kind of behavior will end. It might be gradual, or sudden. But it will have to end.
How the nation handles this change in economic policy will depend on may, many factors. Knowing human nature, humans do not like change, and those accustomed to doing things a certain way will have a difficult time adapting.
Gradual Change
If the change is gradual, and those managing the economy are talented, capable and willing…
… the United States economy can contract in a very controlled implosion, will little radical change, and managed in such as way that the United States might experience a simple minor recession.
Significantly, in 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council admitted for the first time that America's global power was indeed on a declining trajectory. In one of its periodic futuristic reports, Global Trends 2025, the Council cited "the transfer of global wealth and economic power now under way, roughly from West to East" and "without precedent in modern history," as the primary factor in the decline of the "United States' relative strength -- even in the military realm."
Like many in Washington, however, the Council’s analysts anticipated a very long, very soft landing for American global preeminence, and harbored the hope that somehow...
... the U.S. would long "retain unique military capabilities… to project military power globally" for decades to come.
Sure…
What ever you say.
Wrapped in imperial hubris, like Whitehall or Quai d'Orsay before it, the White House still seems to imagine that American decline will be gradual, gentle, and partial. In his State of the Union address last January, President Obama offered the reassurance that "I do not accept second place for the United States of America."
A few days later, Vice President Biden ridiculed the very idea that "we are destined to fulfill [historian Paul] Kennedy's prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended."
Similarly, writing in the November issue of the establishment journal Foreign Affairs, neo-liberal foreign policy guru Joseph Nye waved away talk of China's economic and military rise, dismissing "misleading metaphors of organic decline" and denying that any deterioration in U.S. global power was underway.
Ordinary Americans, watching their jobs head overseas, have a more realistic view than their cosseted leaders. An opinion poll in August 2010 found that 65 percent of Americans believed the country was now "in a state of decline." Already, Australia and Turkey, traditional U.S. military allies, are using their American-manufactured weapons for joint air and naval maneuvers with China.
Already, America's closest economic partners are backing away from Washington's opposition to China's rigged currency rates. As the president flew back from his Asian tour last month, a gloomy New York Times headline summed the moment up this way: "Obama's Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage, China, Britain and Germany Challenge U.S., Trade Talks With Seoul Fail, Too."
-Salon 2010
Sudden Change
If those in Washington DC, have been living in isolation bubbles, echo chambers, and have selfish, self-interests at heart rather than what is good for the nation, it is highly likely that there could be a very sudden change. Perhaps one that reaches the limits and boundaries of a catastrophe.
There are far too many variables involved to make accurate predictions. But that doesn’t stop people. And you can find these predictions all over the internet.
Viewed historically, the question is not whether the United States will lose its unchallenged global power, but just how precipitous and wrenching the decline will be.
In place of Washington’s wishful thinking, let’s use the National Intelligence Council’s own futuristic methodology.
Here we suggest four realistic scenarios for how, whether with a bang or a whimper, U.S. global power could reach its end in the 2020s (along with four accompanying assessments of just where we are today).
The future scenarios include:
Economic decline,
Oil shock,
Military misadventure, and…
World War III.
While these are hardly the only possibilities when it comes to American decline or even collapse, they offer a window into an onrushing future.
Economic Decline: Scenario 2020
After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special status as the world’s reserve currency.
Hasn't happened... yet. But that is currently in process.
For many reasons, the Chinese authorities will probably someday stop pegging the yuan to a basket of currencies, and shift to a modern inflation-targeting regime under which they allow the exchange rate to fluctuate much more freely, especially against the dollar.
When that happens, expect most of Asia to follow China. In due time, the dollar, currently the anchor currency for roughly two-thirds of world GDP, could lose nearly half its weight.
Considering how much the United States relies on the dollar’s special status – or what then-French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing famously called America’s “exorbitant privilege” – to fund massive public and private borrowing, the impact of such a shift could be significant.
Suddenly, the cost of imports soars.
This did happen. From the "Trump Tariffs" of 25%, to the costs of shipping in 2021, importing products into the United States is factually much more costly than before.
Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad, Washington slowly pulls U.S. forces back from hundreds of overseas bases to a continental perimeter. By now, however, it is far too late.
Did not happen. The United States military instead got much larger.
Faced with a fading superpower incapable of paying the bills, China, India, Iran, Russia, and other powers, great and regional, provocatively challenge U.S. dominion over the oceans, space, and cyberspace.
True, and in process.
Meanwhile, amid soaring prices, ever-rising unemployment, and a continuing decline in real wages, domestic divisions widen into violent clashes and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues.
True and in process.
Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal.
Good call. Donald Trump became President, and Biden continues his neocon ambitions.
The world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence.
Oh, the world is paying attention. It's just that America is viewed as a declining and unstable nation.
Oil Shock: Scenario 2025
The United States remains so dependent upon foreign oil that a few adverse developments in the global energy market in 2025 spark an oil shock.
By comparison, it makes the 1973 oil shock (when prices quadrupled in just months) look like the proverbial molehill.
Angered at the dollar’s plummeting value, OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Riyadh, demand future energy payments in a “basket” of Yen, Yuan, and Euros.
That only hikes the cost of U.S. oil imports further.
At the same moment, while signing a new series of long-term delivery contracts with China, the Saudis stabilize their own foreign exchange reserves by switching to the Yuan.
Meanwhile, China pours countless billions into building a massive trans-Asia pipeline and funding Iran’s exploitation of the world largest percent natural gas field at South Pars in the Persian Gulf.
Concerned that the U.S. Navy might no longer be able to protect the oil tankers traveling from the Persian Gulf to fuel East Asia, a coalition of Tehran, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi form an unexpected new Gulf alliance and affirm that China’s new fleet of swift aircraft carriers will henceforth patrol the Persian Gulf from a base on the Gulf of Oman.
Not happened, and there are no plans for this. What is happening is that China and Iran, with Russia have formed a joint military block.
Under heavy economic pressure, London agrees to cancel the U.S. lease on its Indian Ocean island base of Diego Garcia, while Canberra, pressured by the Chinese, informs Washington that the Seventh Fleet is no longer welcome to use Fremantle as a homeport, effectively evicting the U.S. Navy from the Indian Ocean.
Did not happen. In fact, the United States is pushing for even stronger military presence, and few other nations are enthusiastic about joining the QUAD.
With just a few strokes of the pen and some terse announcements, the “Carter Doctrine,” by which U.S. military power was to eternally protect the Persian Gulf, is laid to rest in 2025. All the elements that long assured the United States limitless supplies of low-cost oil from that region — logistics, exchange rates, and naval power — evaporate. At this point, the U.S. can still cover only an insignificant 12 percent of its energy needs from its nascent alternative energy industry, and remains dependent on imported oil for half of its energy consumption.
Did not happen. Instead, the USA is heavily involved militarily in the entire Middle East region.
The oil shock that follows hits the country like a hurricane, sending prices to startling heights, making travel a staggeringly expensive proposition, putting real wages (which had long been declining) into freefall, and rendering non-competitive whatever American exports remained.
Not happened yet, but 2025 is still four years away.
With thermostats dropping, gas prices climbing through the roof, and dollars flowing overseas in return for costly oil, the American economy is paralyzed. With long-fraying alliances at an end and fiscal pressures mounting, U.S. military forces finally begin a staged withdrawal from their overseas bases.
I would highly doubt it. If anything the last few years has been a nearly insane level of pro-military anti-China, anti-Russia and anti-Iran war-mongering.
Within a few years, the U.S. is functionally bankrupt and the clock is ticking toward midnight on the American Century.
Military Misadventure: Scenario 2014
Counterintuitively, as their power wanes, empires often plunge into ill-advised military misadventures. This phenomenon is known among historians of empire as “micro-militarism” and seems to involve psychologically compensatory efforts to salve the sting of retreat or defeat by occupying new territories, however briefly and catastrophically.
These operations, irrational even from an imperial point of view, often yield hemorrhaging expenditures or humiliating defeats that only accelerate the loss of power.
Embattled empires through the ages suffer an arrogance that drives them to plunge ever deeper into military misadventures until defeat becomes debacle.
In 413 BCE, a weakened Athens sent 200 ships to be slaughtered in Sicily.
In 1921, a dying imperial Spain dispatched 20,000 soldiers to be massacred by Berber guerrillas in Morocco.
In 1956, a fading British Empire destroyed its prestige by attacking Suez.
And in 2001 and 2003, the U.S. occupied Afghanistan and invaded Iraq.
With the hubris that marks empires over the millennia, Washington has increased its troops in Afghanistan to 100,000, expanded the war into Pakistan, and extended its commitment to 2014 and beyond, courting disasters large and small in this guerilla-infested, nuclear-armed graveyard of empires.
So irrational, so unpredictable is “micro-militarism” that seemingly fanciful scenarios are soon outdone by actual events. With the U.S. military stretched thin from Somalia to the Philippines and tensions rising in Israel, Iran, and Korea, possible combinations for a disastrous military crisis abroad are multifold.
Washington makes its move, sending in Special Operations forces to seize oil ports in the Persian Gulf. This, in turn, sparks a rash of suicide attacks and the sabotage of pipelines and oil wells. As black clouds billow skyward and diplomats rise at the U.N. to bitterly denounce American actions, commentators worldwide reach back into history to brand this “America’s Suez,” a telling reference to the 1956 debacle that marked the end of the British Empire.
Well things are going on. Most are not reported. There is the enormous Beirut explosion, as well as various other oil related military Mal-adventures.
World War III: Present Situation
In the summer of 2010, military tensions between the U.S. and China began to rise in the western Pacific, once considered an American “lake.” Even a year earlier no one would have predicted such a development. As Washington played upon its alliance with London to appropriate much of Britain’s global power after World War II, so China is now using the profits from its export trade with the U.S. to fund what is likely to become a military challenge to American dominion over the waterways of Asia and the Pacific.
With its growing resources, Beijing is claiming a vast maritime arc from Korea to Indonesia long dominated by the U.S. Navy.
In August, after Washington expressed a “national interest” in the South China Sea and conducted naval exercises there to reinforce that claim, Beijing’s official Global Times responded angrily, saying, “The U.S.-China wrestling match over the South China Sea issue has raised the stakes in deciding who the real future ruler of the planet will be.”
Amid growing tensions, the Pentagon reported that Beijing now holds “the capability to attack… [U.S.] aircraft carriers in the western Pacific Ocean” and target “nuclear forces throughout… the continental United States.” By developing “offensive nuclear, space, and cyber warfare capabilities,”
China seems determined to vie for dominance of what the Pentagon calls “the information spectrum in all dimensions of the modern battlespace.” With ongoing development of the powerful Long March V booster rocket, as well as the launch of two satellites in January 2010 and another in July, for a total of five, Beijing signaled that the country was making rapid strides toward an “independent” network of 35 satellites for global positioning, communications, and reconnaissance capabilities by 2020.
To check China and extend its military position globally, Washington is intent on building a new digital network of air and space robotics, advanced cyberwarfare capabilities, and electronic surveillance. Military planners expect this integrated system to envelop the Earth in a cyber-grid capable of blinding entire armies on the battlefield or taking out a single terrorist in field or favela.
By 2020, if all goes according to plan, the Pentagon will launch a three-tiered shield of space drones — reaching from stratosphere to exosphere, armed with agile missiles, linked by a resilient modular satellite system, and operated through total telescopic surveillance.
Last April, the Pentagon made history. It extended drone operations into the exosphere by quietly launching the X-37B unmanned space shuttle into a low orbit 255 miles above the planet. The X-37B is the first in a new generation of unmanned vehicles that will mark the full weaponization of space, creating an arena for future warfare unlike anything that has gone before.
From 2008 through 2016, American military forces were training to invade islands in the South China Sea, and moneys were spent enlarging military bases in the Pacific.
From 2017 through 2020, it's been war. Mostly "hybrid", but there has been a major biological warfare effort involved against China with 7 strains attacking livestock, and three attacking people. All have failed.
Leaving and resulting a March 2021 Alaskan meeting where the USA told China to "roll over and die", or be destroyed. China responded back with "Fuck you".
World War III: Scenario 2025
The technology of space and cyberwarfare is so new and untested that even the most outlandish scenarios may soon be superseded by a reality still hard to conceive. If we simply employ the sort of scenarios that the Air Force itself used in its 2009 Future Capabilities Game, however, we can gain “a better understanding of how air, space and cyberspace overlap in warfare,” and so begin to imagine how the next world war might actually be fought.
It’s 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday in 2025. While cyber-shoppers pound the portals of Best Buy for deep discounts on the latest home electronics from China, U.S. Air Force technicians at the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) on Maui choke on their coffee as their panoramic screens suddenly blip to black. Thousands of miles away at the U.S. CyberCommand’s operations center in Texas, cyberwarriors soon detect malicious binaries that, though fired anonymously, show the distinctive digital fingerprints of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
The first overt strike is one nobody predicted. Chinese “malware” seizes control of the robotics aboard an unmanned solar-powered U.S. “Vulture” drone as it flies at 70,000 feet over the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan. It suddenly fires all the rocket pods beneath its enormous 400-foot wingspan, sending dozens of lethal missiles plunging harmlessly into the Yellow Sea, effectively disarming this formidable weapon.
Determined to fight fire with fire, the White House authorizes a retaliatory strike. Confident that its F-6 “Fractionated, Free-Flying” satellite system is impenetrable, Air Force commanders in California transmit robotic codes to the flotilla of X-37B space drones orbiting 250 miles above the Earth, ordering them to launch their “Triple Terminator” missiles at China’s 35 satellites. Zero response. In near panic, the Air Force launches its Falcon Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle into an arc 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and then, just 20 minutes later, sends the computer codes to fire missiles at seven Chinese satellites in nearby orbits. The launch codes are suddenly inoperative.
As the Chinese virus spreads uncontrollably through the F-6 satellite architecture, while those second-rate U.S. supercomputers fail to crack the malware’s devilishly complex code, GPS signals crucial to the navigation of U.S. ships and aircraft worldwide are compromised. Carrier fleets begin steaming in circles in the mid-Pacific. Fighter squadrons are grounded. Reaper drones fly aimlessly toward the horizon, crashing when their fuel is exhausted. Suddenly, the United States loses what the U.S. Air Force has long called “the ultimate high ground”: space. Within hours, the military power that had dominated the globe for nearly a century has been defeated in World War III without a single human casualty.
A New World Order?
Even if future events prove duller than these scenarios suggest, every significant trend points toward a far more striking decline in American global power by 2025 than anything Washington now seems to be envisioning.
As allies worldwide begin to realign their policies to take cognizance of rising Asian powers, the cost of maintaining 800 or more overseas military bases will simply become unsustainable…
… finally forcing a staged withdrawal on a still-unwilling Washington.
With both the U.S. and China in a race to weaponize space and cyberspace, tensions between the two powers are bound to rise, making military conflict by 2025 at least feasible, if hardly guaranteed.
Complicating matters even more, the economic, military, and technological trends outlined above will not operate in tidy isolation.
As happened to European empires after World War II, such negative forces will undoubtedly prove synergistic.
They will combine in thoroughly unexpected ways, create crises for which Americans are remarkably unprepared, and threaten to spin the economy into a sudden downward spiral, consigning this country to a generation or more of economic misery.
As U.S. power recedes, the past offers a spectrum of possibilities for a future world order.
At one end of this spectrum, the rise of a new global superpower, however unlikely, cannot be ruled out.
Yet both China and Russia evince self-referential cultures, recondite non-roman scripts, regional defense strategies, and underdeveloped legal systems, denying them key instruments for global dominion. At the moment then, no single superpower seems to be on the horizon likely to succeed the U.S.
Nonsense. As of 2021, Russia, China and Iran have combined for a unified Asia.
In a dark, dystopian version of our global future, a coalition of transnational corporations, multilateral forces like NATO, and an international financial elite could conceivably forge a single, possibly unstable, supra-national nexus that would make it no longer meaningful to speak of national empires at all.
As stated by an American inside of America over ten years ago. Such dated ignorance.
While denationalized corporations and multinational elites would assumedly rule such a world from secure urban enclaves, the multitudes would be relegated to urban and rural wastelands.
In “Planet of Slums,” Mike Davis offers at least a partial vision of such a world from the bottom up. He argues that the billion people already packed into fetid favela-style slums worldwide (rising to two billion by 2030) will make “the ‘feral, failed cities’ of the Third World… the distinctive battlespace of the twenty-first century.”
As darkness settles over some future super-favela, “the empire can deploy Orwellian technologies of repression” as “hornet-like helicopter gun-ships stalk enigmatic enemies in the narrow streets of the slum districts… Every morning the slums reply with suicide bombers and eloquent explosions.”
At a midpoint on the spectrum of possible futures, a new global oligopoly might emerge between 2020 and 2040, with rising powers China, Russia, India, and Brazil collaborating with receding powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States to enforce an ad hoc global dominion, akin to the loose alliance of European empires that ruled half of humanity circa 1900.
Another possibility: the rise of regional hegemons in a return to something reminiscent of the international system that operated before modern empires took shape.
In this neo-Westphalian world order, with its endless vistas of micro-violence and unchecked exploitation, each hegemon would dominate its immediate region — Brasilia in South America, Washington in North America, Pretoria in southern Africa, and so on. Space, cyberspace, and the maritime deeps, removed from the control of the former planetary “policeman,” the United States, might even become a new global commons, controlled through an expanded U.N. Security Council or some ad hoc body.
All of these scenarios extrapolate existing trends into the future on the assumption that Americans, blinded by the arrogance of decades of historically unparalleled power, cannot or will not take steps to manage the unchecked erosion of their global position.
If America’s decline is in fact on a 22-year trajectory from 2003 to 2025, then we have already frittered away most of the first decade of that decline with wars that distracted us from long-term problems and, like water tossed onto desert sands, wasted trillions of desperately needed dollars.
Duh. It's pretty fucking obvious.
If only 15 years remain, the odds of frittering them all away still remain high. Congress and the president are now in gridlock; the American system is flooded with corporate money meant to jam up the works; and there is little suggestion that any issues of significance, including our wars, our bloated national security state, our starved education system, and our antiquated energy supplies, will be addressed with sufficient seriousness to assure the sort of soft landing that might maximize our country’s role and prosperity in a changing world.
Yup. Forget about a "soft landing". The psychopaths in Washington DC will have none of that.
Europe’s empires are gone and America’s imperium is going.
It seems increasingly doubtful that the United States will have anything like Britain’s success in shaping a succeeding world order that protects its interests, preserves its prosperity, and bears the imprint of its best values.
This was written a decade ago in 2010.
The “knee jerk” reaction is for America to start a war.
Don’t.
China. Does. Not. Play.
The Oligarchy have their ideas…
Certainly the PTB, and the oligarchy skedaddled to their hidy-holes in remote areas of NZ, Canada, and Europe. So that tells me that the oligarchy believe that a collapse is imminent.
So, taking their lead and some common sense, we can take note and prepare…
As Ayn Rand points out throughout her books (particularly in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), it is production which is true wealth. The person who produces, whether that be food, shoes, holsters, or some other form of tangible good, is the one who holds true wealth. They’re adding something to society, creating something that others need or want.
In the same spirit, I would argue that the person who can provide a tangible service as well also has true wealth. An electrician who can provide light to a building, a plumber who can ensure personal hygiene is a diminished issue, and a doctor who can repair a wound are all examples of people who may not necessarily produce tangible goods (such as in the case of farmers, leatherworkers, and blacksmiths), but they still are able to produce a service that is both wanted and needed.
So, one of the first things that we can do to prepare ourselves for economic collapse is to become capable of producing.
This can be done in two primary ways: by the learning of a new skill or by getting into the business of producing merchandise.
Learning a New Skill
This is part of the reason that I went and became a locksmith. I have more than one job but wanted to have something of a backup plan perchance something should happen to my primary income. Tradesmen are both necessary and (typically) in short supply. Learning a concrete skill seemed to be something that would provide a fairly decent insurance policy should I need to fall back on something else. I’m glad I did, too. We’re a ‘key’ business.
Whether it be plumbing, carpentry, farrier work, or any other kind of trade for that matter, the point is that becoming proficient in a trade is to make yourself proficient in something that is likely to always be necessary. To look at a rather morbid example of such, we can analyze what the Germans did to the Jews throughout the Holocaust. Whether you are reading Schindler’s List, Maus, or The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz, you can see that it was the Jews who knew a trade such as metal polishing, mechanical work, or machining were (at least for a while) kept alive. (Of course, I’m by no means saying that pianists, teachers, and shopkeepers had no value.)
Learning to Produce Products
The second aspect would be investment in a particular merchandise. It involves producing products, starting a side business of some sort, perhaps. True, this often requires increasing one’s knowledge in a particular field, but there are some regions where it is simply the investment that allows a man to produce. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
This is where a shopkeeper would fit in. It is because such a man has invested capital into supplies that he is able to produce wealth for himself. Post-economic collapse though, which supplies will help one to produce wealth, however? Well, that leads me to the next topic: bartering.
Barter Society
I think that one of the first things that people need to realize when it comes to economic collapse is that things revert to a BARTER society. Look throughout history, and you’ll see that this is the case. The world doesn’t go to pot and a day later people are walking around and trading gold coins with one another. (I believe Joe Nobody illustrates this point rather well in his Holding Their Own series).
No, people start with trading goods and services for other needed/desired goods and services. Greece proved this with their recent economic collapse within the past five years or so. People traded eggs, milk, and meat for what they needed. I think it’s important to note that the farmer – a producer – was the one that was able to provide this for people as well. HE had true wealth throughout the collapse.
Again, in Venezuela we saw the same thing. People resorted to trading bananas for haircuts. The FIRST thing that becomes of value during an economic collapse is goods and services. True, there will be a very short window in which cash is king until people realize that the paper they have trusted all those years is now truly worthless in every sense of the word, but that window is short.
Barterable Goods and Services
So, after the brief cash window closes, after your world resorts to barter, the question becomes: “Okay, so what do I barter with? How do I get the things that my family needs?”
Regarding goods, I believe that the following is a good list to begin with. These are the things that people are going to need, and that are going to hold intrinsic value post-economic collapse:
Water – Particularly water bottles. These are readily portable, and not so value dense as to be unpractical for trade.
Water Filters – The majority of Americans have less than 3 days of food in their home. That includes water. If people can’t afford their electric bill, post-economic collapse, they are going to need access to safe water, and a water filter provides that.
Ammo– I truly believe that this will be one of the most practical and widely accepted forms of currency. It’s been used before as a currency, and it’ll be used again.
Guns– Value-dense, but there are going to be people who want them to protect their families from post-collapse violence. The demand for guns skyrocketed this year thanks to the riots and government action. What do you think the demand will look like post-collapse?
Food – There will always be a need for food, and – as witnessed by food bank lines – one of the first indicators of economic downturns.
Diapers – Parents go through thousands of these per year and will not have an adequate supply for their kids post-collapse. I believe reusable cloth diapers will be important.
Body Armor – Value-dense, but people will want it. There are record sales of it this year, and that desire will continue in a violent, post-collapse economy.
Coffee – It creates an addiction, and the withdrawal effects SUCK. People are going to want coffee, and there are ways to store it for a long time.
Boots – There will be an increase in the amount of walking the average man does thanks to the unavailability of gasoline. Shoes will wear out and need to be replaced.
Coats – Clothing wears out, new people are always being created, people constantly change size, and people always need it.
Gloves– There will be an increase in outdoor work, and gloves wear out.
Alcohol – Another thing that mankind can’t seem to get enough of. I just wouldn’t broadcast how much of this stuff that you have. People kill for it.
Tobacco – Another addiction that I wouldn’t broadcast you have a lot of. Cigarettes were routinely used as currency among POWs in WW2, and still are used in prisons throughout the world as currency.
Baby Formula – If breastfeeding is no longer an option, people are going to need formula to feed their babies. Parents WILL feed their babies, and there will be a dire need for such. Once again, not something I would advertise that I have a stockpile of.
Gasoline – This will always be needed for vehicles and generators.
Salt – Needed for meat storage since it is very unlikely that people will have access to constant electricity for refrigeration.
Medical Supplies – Crutches, slings, gauze, various first aid equipment and more will be in short supply. People always hurt themselves, and very few of much stored for their own first aid.
Medicine – There will always be a need for medication.
Spare Gun Parts – Guns break, and few have spare parts stored.
Condoms – People are going to realize that now is probably not the best time to get pregnant. If you staple three of them together and sell them in multi-packs, you can create a market for your baby formula as well! (I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
Eye Glasses – Maybe it’s difficult to get replacement glasses, but reading glasses can be bought in bulk cheaply. It’s one of the most difficult things to get in prison, as the “state issue” glasses make you look like a retired mob boss.
Holsters – The thousands of people who bought pistols to keep in their nightstand will come to realize that they need a way to carry their weapon around with them. Things will be too dangerous to do otherwise, and many forget to buy a holster ahead of time.
When it comes to services, these are the skills that I believe will be in great demand post-economic collapse. It would be wise to learn at least some degree of proficiency in one of them.
Farming – Food production will be vital, and the man with beehives, fields, a garden, chickens, or dairy animals will be able to produce an item that people need on a daily basis.
Ranching – Much different than farming. Whether you know how to manage cattle for somebody else, or have the knowledge to raise them of your own accord, cattle, sheep, goats, and so on are going to need to be cared for to provide meat, leather, hides, and more for people.
Mechanical Work – Vehicles, generators, and more will break down and people will need them to be fixed.
Electrical Work – Wiring solar, pumps for wells, and more will always be needed.
Machining – It is likely that there will still be factories producing, and machinists will be needed for such.
Gunsmithing – Accidents happen, and few trust their own abilities to fix a firearm. Gunsmiths will be needed for such events.
Leatherwork – Primarily for holsters, gun straps, and clothing.
Medical Work – There will be a dire need for such workers post-economic collapse. People will be unable to afford their medications, or regular healthcare services, and thus there will be a drastic increase in acute conditions. Medical workers will be needed to address such, even if it is on the individual barter basis.
Protection – Herds, businesses, neighborhoods, and residences are going to want permanent protection, and will be willing to hire experienced armed men to do so. Knowing how to patrol, set up a perimeter, and dispose of threats will be in demand.
Baking – Knowledge of how to make bread will allow you to produce an item that everyone will need and want post-collapse.
Textile Creation – Whether this comes in the form of knitting, crocheting, tailoring, or so on, there will be a need for items of cloth as clothing gradually wears out, is lost, soiled, or stolen.
Keep in mind that all the above are general lists. Undoubtedly, you will be able to think of both goods and services that will have post-economic collapse value that are not included above. These are simply given to get your mind thinking about some sure-fire ways to be able to barter for what you need in the event of an economic collapse.
What About Precious Metals?
There are two reasons gold and silver have been omitted:
First, the use of precious metals doesn’t seem to come into common use until well after the period of barter transactions.
Second, I believe that precious metals are much more important for wealth evacuation. Let’s take a look at both of these in more detail.
To begin with, seldom throughout history do we see precious metals instantly being reverted to as currency post-economic collapse. Why? You can’t eat them, you can’t drink them, and few understand their inherent value (ask a friend what the current price of gold is to find see). Even fewer can tell if the gold/silver that you are offering them is the real deal or a fake.
Stocking precious metals is now how to survive an economic collapse. People don’t want gold and silver after an economic collapse. They want to be able to feed their families. Gold and silver will not be a readily used means of exchange in such an event.
To further complicate matters, gold is incredibly value dense. As of this writing, gold is a little over $2000 an ounce. That’s a lot of value wrapped up in that little coin. If you need ammunition, and go to buy it from some small-time reloader, do you think he’ll be able to honor the equivalent of an ounce of gold’s worth of ammo? Odds are he won’t even have that much in stock. If we really want to examine the issue, I think that silver would be a better form of currency, precious-metals wise.
Silver is currently around $25/ounce. That’s a much more useable value amount on a daily basis. (If you want to read more, read about the best silver for preppers.) However, what we see throughout history is the reversion to barter, not to the gold standard.
Gold Exception – Wealth Evacuation
If you’ve got to get the heck out of somewhere, and fast, then I believe that gold is where it’s at. Silver is too bulky. A pocket full of gold coins would allow you to “start fresh” somewhere a bit more stable (if you can find such a place). Shoot, we can even look at the US post-Civil War here. Southern money was worth nothing after the war. However, those with gold and silver were able to have something with inherent value that would be redeemable for the new currency.
Again, we can look to the German Jews of the late 1930s. This was a very scary time to be a Jew in Europe. The persecution was very real, and things were heating up. The man who was able to sew gold coins up into the hem of his jacket, and get the heck out of Dodge ASAP was able to arrive at a new and politically friendlier climate with at least some of his wealth intact and under the radar. Baggage is lost and stolen. Clothing seldom is. Thus, I believe that one of the best purposes of gold is wealth evacuation.
How to Survive an Economic Collapse Summary
If you had asked people a year ago if they ever thought the entire world would enact lockdowns and throw refuse people for not wearing a surgical mask at Kroger, they would have said you were nuts. Yet, here we are. Why is it so improbable to think an economic collapse couldn’t be next? All of the warning signs are there? Is it foolish to just ignore them, and pretend that things will always continue on as “normal”?
I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
Conclusion
So, let’s simplify things.
The statists argue that nothing really bad will happen in the future. At worst will be a recession, but Washington DC will have everything under control.
The “doom and gloomers” are forecasting a complete melt-down of the American society, and it will happen regardless of an American involvement in World War III.
Preppers are fearful for the worst of the worst.
Fourth Turning followers are also fearful for the worst of the worst.
Media Shrills are mindless automatons. They just regurgitate their programming.
Sheeple are oblivious. They know that things are going to shit, but they believe what ever they read. The the “news” says that everything is under control.
Neocons believe that everything will be fixed and turn around once the USA wins World War III.
So what is going to happen?
I cannot tell you all because everyone’s future is different. We all have our own MWI topography maps, and our futures depend on our thoughts, and affirmations.
Would it be too strange for me to allude that the members of each of the groups above will have their own futures play out exactly as their thoughts and actions dictate…
…Yup. That is what it’s gonna be (more or less).
No one is going to be unscathed. We will all experience changes. It’s just that the magnitude of the changes will differ from person to person. The best advice that I can give is to make your immediate environment safe, secure and as stable as possible.
There is no way to predict what will happen for the vast bulk of humanity. All you can do is prepare for your own family and your own region.
The best way to prepare is to be prudent. Be cautious. Be positive, and conduct prayer affirmations that include a GENEROUS listing of affirmations that describe safety and isolation from any looming catastrophes as a result of American mismanagement, evil behaviors, or insanity of one level or the other.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
Long time MM readers will have no problem with this. By looking at all the evidence regarding what has been going on with America, every single indicator has pointed to the need to identify an external threat and then use that threat to unify America against. The problem has been, and continues to be, that the United States is in no state to fight anyone, let alone throw spit balls at it.
So it has to resort to non-obvious means to attack it.
The best image that I can give is imagine a very old, febble, sickly man in a wheelchair. He doesn’t like the other people in the cafeteria. So when no one is watching he puts some of his blood pressure medicine in their soup.
That’s America today.
America today.
All of this is tiring.
To prevent anyone from noticing that the old geezer was putting his medicine in the other people’s food, he starts yelling and pointing at the others at the table. He screams at them! Claims that they are dirty, ugly, corrupt, sinister, and everything that he can think of. And when they try to say anything. He throws used tissue at them, tosses his flip-flops at them, and then starts spitting at everyone.
Of course he is allowed to do this.
For he is a respected old man, and he has friends. He also has a large group of “enforcers” that do his bidding. No one at the table is unaware of this. They jsut want to keep out of his way, and don’t get on his bad side.
The old man has a nice army of protectors that do his bidding.
.
Never the less, he really is out of control. And after a while with soup splashed everywhere, and yelling and screaming, and some of the other retired patients being wheeled away to their own rooms, a growing silence emerges.
The hospital orderlies move forward to get him under control.
That’s where we are today.
Introduction
Other people are still investigating the myrid of issues and events that the Trump administration set in motion. They need to. Whether or not you like Turmp or hate his, for four years the White House was staffed with war-mongering neocons. If you think that all they did was provike the world into war, then you are fully mistaken. All anyone sees is just “the tip of the iceberg”.
The ramifications of the Trump Administration will continue to unravel for decades to come. Some can be undone, while others might manifest as some very nasty events that will “pop up out of the blue”. Stay frosty.
The following is a great article. It is reprinted in it’s entirety.
Phew!
It is terribly TECHNICAL, and it is not an easy read. It is archived here on MM for those with more than just a casual understanding of bio-weapon design. Also for those of you that still hold on to the [1] American public narrative that it is a natural pandemic, or the CIA narrative [2] that it is an escaped bio-weapon out of China. This is for you.
For the rest of us, well… we know what the Hell is going on.
It is titled “Tracking Israeli Involvement: University of North Carolina generated COVID-19 (censored/suppressed)” By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor written on February 9, 2021. It can be found HERE if you like Facebook, or directly HERE on VT. Edited to fit this venue, and all credit to the author.
Tracking Israeli Involvement: University of North Carolina generated COVID-19 (censored/suppressed)
Update: VT has been tracking COVID stats and disinformation/censorship since day one. Now, in light of the Beirut attack (Trump backs us up), we now view the release of a hybridized version of COVID 19 on the New York metropolitan area as a terror attack.
Stats on hospitalization and deaths there have been altered/censored which proves this was a biological attack. Death rates were many times higher than elsewhere and even target specifically the Jewish population, something Israel has done before.
We have watched Google Corporation’s manipulation of the internet, we have tracked them and find clear and absolute evidence that ties those who executed the Beirut attack to those who released COVID 19 on the US and the world.
We have also watched Facebook, Google/YouTube, and Twitter censored Beirut videos and coordinate with MSM to sell a fake narrative involving unexplorable fertilizer while evidence mounts of a massive not only attack by Israel but a brilliant set of feints also, drones, planes, and even a missile.
Who knows, a nuke could have been loaded there with ease right off a truck and no one would notice.
Now with Beirut in shambles, the UAE joining Greater Israel, and the Qanon monstrosity selling a police state to the rabble, the inexplicable becomes clear.
Below, we [1] prove the creation of COVID, which was [2] a CIA project done through a cover program at a private university using bioweapons experts. Now [3] we see it released, the target? [4] Looting the US economy, [5] bringing America to civil war, and [6] allowing power to centralize under Kosher Nostra control without the subterfuge, now unnecessary.
This article contains hard proof that cannot be questioned or denied, which you may submit to any government agency or healthcare professional.
What is not yet proven but coming into focus is that the US biological weapons program at Fort Detrick, Maryland, equipment and certainly key staff, certainly migrated to secret labs at large state universities in order to “hide in plain sight.”
Follow the careers, all links are included, of those who worked on the Wuhan-COVID project in 2017.
Also, note that the exact same personnel and equipment is used for fake “prevention” research and testing as weaponization and actual production.
Since this article was written, we have begun to look at worldwide operations of US nuclear/bio/chem contractor, Kushner-Trump’s favorite, Battelle, and their secret labs around the world.
When we began, our people started to be threatened. That was a serious mistake.
Submit this paper to any physician or other qualified bio-sciences specialist. See what they say.
Documents below will show that research to create COVID 19 began in the United States in 2006 and culminated in a successful bio-weapon in 2015, with work done at the University of North Carolina and at Harvard and at the Food and Drug Administration’s lab in Arkansas.
Their work was titled:
“A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence“
They did this and more, so much more as you will read below.
As Trump said, over and over and over, the Chinese were involved.
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China supplied the Wuhan Bat Virus which was used in the American study.
Their name was included for that reason only.
COVID 19 was a US Army bio-weapons project to manufacture a pneumonia-causing disease that would be nearly impossible to vaccinate for in patients over 40 years old.
The proof is here, simply scroll down. The study was run by the University of North Carolina and funded by USAID/CIA. It chose a Chinese bat virus and chose to include a medical facility in Wuhan as well.
Now we know why, a smokescreen of the blame for a program China had little or nothing to do with, something satanically evil and purely American.
In November 2015, a study was published outlining the capability of producing the virus we are dealing with now. Among the many involved was a lab in Wuhan, China. It was listed from the beginning as one of the dozens, mostly American, working on this project.
However, one key participant was left out, USAID. It is suspected, deeply so, that USAID is a front for American bio-warfare research such as that done in Tbilisi, Georgia, and elsewhere, much documented. This is the citation that adds USAID to the research funding group.
Change history
20 November 2015
In the version of this article initially published online, the authors omitted to acknowledge a funding source, USAID-EPT-PREDICT funding from EcoHealth Alliance, to Z.-L.S. The error has been corrected for the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.
[ Editor’s Note: We will now present Pravda’s biased article and, below that, the actual study proving the capability of producing COVID 19, proving it is not a naturally occurring virus once and for all.
As to who did what, this is not our job but we are proving, categorically, that when a Chinese lab is mentioned, it is a minor player in an American effort, as outlined exhaustively below.
This makes discussing the Wuhan lab possibly complicit in bio-warfare.
Similarly, when Forbes Magazine and others stated they could prove COVID 19 was made naturally, and of course they had the same access we have, we suspect that they are part of a disinformation effort tied to USAID and bio-warfare.
Suspicion is not proof. The proof is proof and there is proof enough to drown in. Our thanks to the American medical professionals who pimped themselves out to the US Army and CIA and who helped bring us where we are now, a nation broken to pieces…VeteransToday ]
Pravda.Ru: Such material appeared in 2015 on the website of the scientific journal Natura in 2015. Then the authors claimed that after the advent of the SARS virus (2002-2003) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), scientists were aware of the risk of interspecific transmission that would lead to an epidemic among people.
Successful lab experiment
Among other things, the research team studied bats, which are the largest incubators of coronaviruses. Nevertheless, bats could not transmit the coronavirus to humans because they could not interact with human cells with ACE2 receptors.
The material also stated that horseshoe bats carry a strain of SARS coronavirus that can be transmitted to humans. It has been named the SHC014-CoV virus.
To better study this virus, scientists copied the coronavirus and infected it with laboratory mice. The results showed that the virus is really able to bind to human cells with ACE2 receptors and multiply in the cells of the respiratory system.
In the research work, it is noted that laboratory materials, samples and equipment that were used in the research were obtained from the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Although it is not yet possible to say for sure that the virus that was tested in laboratory mice is the same as the SARS-Cove-2 coronavirus.
NATO policy
However, interesting things can be found in earlier documents.
For example:
The 2019 Alliance’s activity report says that in 2019, the Alliance’s first place in research and development was occupied by the topic of radiochemical and biological protection (29%), shifting the seemingly most pressing problem of Europe – counterterrorism (it turned out to be 4- m priority).
A year earlier, in 2018, the situation was exactly the opposite: terrorism, as it should be, was in the first place (28%), and radiochemical and biological protection in the fourth (13%).
As the Brussels snitch writes in the telegram channel, “given the absence of visible reasons for such a sharp change in scientific interests, there are two options and both are unpleasant:
or NATO now wags the fifth point, falsifying the data to show “and we always prepared for viruses, we are modern”,
or even in 2019 in the alliance, God forgive me, they knew where the trouble would come from.
Yes, the first option is much more real, but, you see, the facts are surprising.
Published: 09 November 2015A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence by Vineet D Menachery, Boyd L Yount Jr, Kari Debbink, Sudhakar Agnihothram, Lisa E Gralinski, Jessica A Plante, Rachel L Graham, Trevor Scobey, Xing-Yi Ge, Eric F Donaldson, Scott H Randell, Antonio Lanzavecchia, Wayne A Marasco, Zhengli-Li Shi, Ralph S Baric
-Nature Medicine volume 21, pages 1508–1513 (2015)
A Corrigendum to this article was published on 06 April 2016
This article has been updated
Abstract
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans. Here we examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations1. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone.
The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis.
Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approach failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein.
On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.
Main
The emergence of SARS-CoV heralded a new era in the cross-species transmission of severe respiratory illness with globalization leading to rapid spread around the world and massive economic impact3,4. Since then, several strains—including influenza A strains H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9, and MERS-CoV—have emerged from animal populations, causing considerable disease, mortality and economic hardship for the afflicted regions5. Although public health measures were able to stop the SARS-CoV outbreak4, recent metagenomics studies have identified sequences of closely related SARS-like viruses circulating in Chinese bat populations that may pose a future threat1,6.
However, sequence data alone provides minimal insights to identify and prepare for future pre-pandemic viruses. Therefore, to examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs, we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic CoV spike protein—from the RsSHC014-CoV sequence that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats1—in the context of the SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone. The hybrid virus allowed us to evaluate the ability of the novel spike protein to cause disease independently of other necessary adaptive mutations in its natural backbone.
Using this approach, we characterized CoV infection mediated by the SHC014 spike protein in primary human airway cells and in vivo and tested the efficacy of available immune therapeutics against SHC014-CoV. Together, the strategy translates metagenomics data to help predict and prepare for future emergent viruses.
The sequences of SHC014 and the related RsWIV1-CoV show that these CoVs are the closest relatives to the epidemic SARS-CoV strains (Fig. 1a,b); however, there are important differences in the 14 residues that bind human ACE2, the receptor for SARS-CoV, including the five that are critical for host range: Y442, L472, N479, T487 and Y491 (ref. 7).
In WIV1, three of these residues vary from the epidemic SARS-CoV Urbani strain, but they were not expected to alter binding to ACE2 (Supplementary Fig. 1a,b and Supplementary Table 1). This fact is confirmed by both pseudotyping experiments that measured the ability of lentiviruses encoding WIV1 spike proteins to enter cells expressing human ACE2 (Supplementary Fig. 1) and by in vitro replication assays of WIV1-CoV (ref. 1). In contrast, 7 of 14 ACE2-interaction residues in SHC014 are different from those in SARS-CoV, including all five residues critical for host range (Supplementary Fig. 1c and Supplementary Table 1).
These changes, coupled with the failure of pseudotyped lentiviruses expressing the SHC014 spike to enter cells (Supplementary Fig. 1d), suggested that the SHC014 spike is unable to bind human ACE2. However, similar changes in related SARS-CoV strains had been reported to allow ACE2 binding7,8, suggesting that additional functional testing was required for verification.
Therefore, we synthesized the SHC014 spike in the context of the replication-competent, mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone (we hereafter refer to the chimeric CoV as SHC014-MA15) to maximize the opportunity for pathogenesis and vaccine studies in mice (Supplementary Fig. 2a). Despite predictions from both structure-based modeling and pseudotyping experiments, SHC014-MA15 was viable and replicated to high titers in Vero cells (Supplementary Fig. 2b). Similar to SARS, SHC014-MA15 also required a functional ACE2 molecule for entry and could use human, civet and bat ACE2 orthologs (Supplementary Fig. 2c,d).
To test the ability of the SHC014 spike to mediate infection of the human airway, we examined the sensitivity of the human epithelial airway cell line Calu-3 2B4 (ref. 9) to infection and found robust SHC014-MA15 replication, comparable to that of SARS-CoV Urbani (Fig. 1c).
To extend these findings, primary human airway epithelial (HAE) cultures were infected and showed robust replication of both viruses (Fig. 1d). Together, the data confirm the ability of viruses with the SHC014 spike to infect human airway cells and underscore the potential threat of cross-species transmission of SHC014-CoV.
Figure 1: SARS-like viruses replicate in human airway cells and produce in vivo pathogenesis.
(a) The full-length genome sequences of representative CoVs were aligned and phylogenetically mapped as described in the Online Methods. The scale bar represents nucleotide substitutions, with only bootstrap support above 70% being labeled. The tree shows CoVs divided into three distinct phylogenetic groups, defined as α-CoVs, β-CoVs and γ-CoVs. Classical subgroup clusters are marked as 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d for the β-CoVs and as 1a and 1b for the α-CoVs.
(b) Amino acid sequences of the S1 domains of the spikes of representative β-CoVs of the 2b group, including SARS-CoV, were aligned and phylogenetically mapped. The scale bar represents the amino acid substitutions.
(c,d) Viral replication of SARS-CoV Urbani (black) and SHC014-MA15 (green) after infection of Calu-3 2B4 cells (c) or well-differentiated, primary air-liquid interface HAE cell cultures (d) at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01 for both cell types. Samples were collected at individual time points with biological replicates (n = 3) for both Calu-3 and HAE experiments.
(e,f) Weight loss (n = 9 for SARS-CoV MA15; n = 16 for SHC014-MA15) (e) and viral replication in the lungs (n = 3 for SARS-CoV MA15; n = 4 for SHC014-MA15) (f) of 10-week-old BALB/c mice infected with 1 × 104 p.f.u. of mouse-adapted SARS-CoV MA15 (black) or SHC014-MA15 (green) via the intranasal (i.n.) route.
(g,h) Representative images of lung sections stained for SARS-CoV N antigen from mice infected with SARS-CoV MA15 (n = 3 mice) (g) or SHC014-MA15 (n = 4 mice) (h) are shown. For each graph, the center value represents the group mean, and the error bars define the s.e.m. Scale bars, 1 mm.
To evaluate the role of the SHC014 spike in mediating infection in vivo, we infected 10-week-old BALB/c mice with 104 plaque-forming units (p.f.u.) of either SARS-MA15 or SHC014-MA15 (Fig. 1e–h). Animals infected with SARS-MA15 experienced rapid weight loss and lethality by 4 d post-infection (d.p.i.); in contrast, SHC014-MA15 infection produced substantial weight loss (10%) but no lethality in mice (Fig. 1e). Examination of viral replication revealed nearly equivalent viral titers from the lungs of mice infected with SARS-MA15 or SHC014-MA15 (Fig. 1f). Whereas lungs from the SARS-MA15–infected mice showed robust staining in both the terminal bronchioles and the lung parenchyma 2 d.p.i. (Fig. 1g), those of SHC014-MA15–infected mice showed reduced airway antigen staining (Fig. 1h); in contrast, no deficit in antigen staining was observed in the parenchyma or in the overall histology scoring, suggesting differential infection of lung tissue for SHC014-MA15 (Supplementary Table 2).
We next analyzed infection in more susceptible, aged (12-month-old) animals. SARS-MA15–infected animals rapidly lost weight and succumbed to infection (Supplementary Fig. 3a,b). SHC014-MA15 infection-induced robust and sustained weight loss, but had minimal lethality. Trends in the histology and antigen staining patterns that we observed in young mice were conserved in the older animals (Supplementary Table 3). We excluded the possibility that SHC014-MA15 was mediating infection through an alternative receptor on the basis of experiments using Ace2−/− mice, which did not show weight loss or antigen staining after SHC014-MA15 infection (Supplementary Fig. 4a,b and Supplementary Table 2). Together, the data indicate that viruses with the SHC014 spike are capable of inducing weight loss in mice in the context of a virulent CoV backbone.
Given the preclinical efficacy of Ebola monoclonal antibody therapies, such as ZMApp10, we next sought to determine the efficacy of SARS-CoV monoclonal antibodies against infection with SHC014-MA15. Four broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV spike protein had been previously reported and are probable reagents for immunotherapy11,12,13. We examined the effect of these antibodies on viral replication (expressed as percentage inhibition of viral replication) and found that whereas wild-type SARS-CoV Urbani was strongly neutralized by all four antibodies at relatively low antibody concentrations (Fig. 2a–d), neutralization varied for SHC014-MA15. Fm6, an antibody generated by phage display and escape mutants11,12, achieved only background levels of inhibition of SHC014-MA15 replication (Fig. 2a). Similarly, antibodies 230.15 and 227.14, which were derived from memory B cells of SARS-CoV–infected patients13, also failed to block SHC014-MA15 replication (Fig. 2b,c). For all three antibodies, differences between the SARS and SHC014 spike amino acid sequences corresponded to direct or adjacent residue changes found in SARS-CoV escape mutants (fm6 N479R; 230.15 L443V; 227.14 K390Q/E), which probably explains the absence of the antibodies’ neutralizing activity against SHC014. Finally, monoclonal antibody 109.8 was able to achieve 50% neutralization of SHC014-MA15, but only at high concentrations (10 μg/ml) (Fig. 2d). Together, the results demonstrate that broadly neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV may only have marginal efficacy against emergent SARS-like CoV strains such as SHC014.
Figure 2: SARS-CoV monoclonal antibodies have marginal efficacy against SARS-like CoVs.
(a–d) Neutralization assays evaluating efficacy (measured as a reduction in the number of plaques) of a panel of monoclonal antibodies, which were all originally generated against epidemic SARS-CoV, against infection of Vero cells with SARS-CoV Urbani (black) or SHC014-MA15 (green). The antibodies tested were fm6 (n = 3 for Urbani; n = 5 for SHC014-MA15)11,12
(a), 230.15 (n = 3 for Urbani; n = 2 for SHC014-MA15)
(b), 227.15 (n = 3 for Urbani; n = 5 for SHC014-MA15)
(c) and 109.8 (n = 3 for Urbani; n = 2 for SHC014-MA15)13
(d). Each data point represents the group mean and error bars define the s.e.m. Note that the error bars in SARS-CoV Urbani–infected Vero cells in b,c are overlapped by the symbols and are not visible.
To evaluate the efficacy of existing vaccines against infection with SHC014-MA15, we vaccinated aged mice with double-inactivated whole SARS-CoV (DIV). Previous work showed that DIV could neutralize and protect young mice from challenge with a homologous virus14; however, the vaccine failed to protect aged animals in which augmented immune pathology was also observed, indicating the possibility of the animals being harmed because of the vaccination15. Here we found that DIV did not provide protection from challenge with SHC014-MA15 with regards to weight loss or viral titer (Supplementary Fig. 5a,b). Consistent with a previous report with other heterologous groups 2b CoVs15, serum from DIV-vaccinated, aged mice also failed to neutralize SHC014-MA15 (Supplementary Fig. 5c).
Notably, DIV vaccination resulted in robust immune pathology (Supplementary Table 4) and eosinophilia (Supplementary Fig. 5d–f). Together, these results confirm that the DIV vaccine would not be protective against infection with SHC014 and could possibly augment disease in the aged vaccinated group.
In contrast to the vaccination of mice with DIV, the use of SHC014-MA15 as a live, attenuated vaccine showed potential cross-protection against challenge with SARS-CoV, but the results have important caveats. We infected young mice with 104 p.f.u. of SHC014-MA15 and observed them for 28 d. We then challenged the mice with SARS-MA15 at day 29 (Supplementary Fig. 6a). The prior infection of the mice with the high dose of SHC014-MA15 conferred protection against challenge with a lethal dose of SARS-MA15, although there was only a minimal SARS-CoV neutralization response from the antisera elicited 28 d after SHC014-MA15 infection (Supplementary Fig. 6b, 1:200). In the absence of a secondary antigen boost, 28 d.p.i. represents the expected peak of antibody titers and implies that there will be diminished protection against SARS-CoV over time16,17. Similar results showing protection against challenge with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV were observed in aged BALB/c mice with respect to weight loss and viral replication (Supplementary Fig. 6c,d). However, the SHC014-MA15 infection dose of 104 p.f.u. induced >10% weight loss and lethality in some aged animals (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Fig. 3). We found that vaccination with a lower dose of SHC014-MA15 (100 p.f.u.), did not induce weight loss, but it also failed to protect aged animals from a SARS-MA15 lethal dose challenge (Supplementary Fig. 6e,f). Together, the data suggest that the SHC014-MA15 challenge may confer cross-protection against SARS-CoV through conserved epitopes, but the required dose induces pathogenesis and precludes use as an attenuated vaccine.
Having established that the SHC014 spike has the ability to mediate infection of human cells and cause disease in mice, we next synthesized a full-length SHC014-CoV infectious clone based on the approach used for SARS-CoV (Fig. 3a)2. Replication in Vero cells revealed no deficit for SHC014-CoV relative to that for SARS-CoV (Fig. 3b); however, SHC014-CoV was significantly (P < 0.01) attenuated in primary HAE cultures at both 24 and 48 h after infection (Fig. 3c). In vivo infection of mice demonstrated no significant weight loss but showed reduced viral replication in lungs of full-length SHC014-CoV infection, as compared to SARS-CoV Urbani (Fig. 3d,e). Together, the results establish the viability of full-length SHC014-CoV but suggest that further adaptation is required for its replication to be equivalent to that of epidemic SARS-CoV in human respiratory cells and in mice.
Figure 3: Full-length SHC014-CoV replicates in human airways but lacks the virulence of epidemic SARS-CoV.
(a) Schematic of the SHC014-CoV molecular clone, which was synthesized as six contiguous cDNAs (designated SHC014A, SHC014B, SHC014C, SHC014D, SHC014E and SHC014F) flanked by unique BglI sites that allowed for directed assembly of the full-length cDNA expressing open reading frames (for 1a, 1b, spike, 3, envelope, matrix, 6–8 and nucleocapsid). Underlined nucleotides represent the overhang sequences formed after restriction enzyme cleavage.
(b,c) Viral replication of SARS-CoV Urbani (black) or SHC014-CoV (green) after infection of Vero cells
(b) or well-differentiated, primary air-liquid interface HAE cell cultures
(c) at an MOI of 0.01. Samples were collected at individual time points with biological replicates (n = 3) for each group. Data represent one experiment for both Vero and HAE cells.
(d,e) Weight loss (n = 3 for SARS-CoV MA15, n = 7 for SHC014-CoV; n = 6 for SARS-Urbani)
(d) and viral replication in the lungs (n = 3 for SARS-Urbani and SHC014-CoV)
(e) of 10-week-old BALB/c mice infected with 1 × 105 p.f.u. of SARS-CoV MA15 (gray), SHC014-CoV (green) or SARS-CoV Urbani (black) via the i.n. route. Each data point represents the group mean, and error bars define the s.e.m. **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 using two-tailed Student’s t-test of individual time points.
During the SARS-CoV epidemic, links were quickly established between palm civets and the CoV strains that were detected in humans4.
Building on this finding, the common emergence paradigm argues that epidemic SARS-CoV originated as a bat virus, jumped to civets, and incorporated changes within the receptor-binding domain (RBD) to improve binding to civet Ace2 (ref. 18).
Subsequent exposure to people in live-animal markets permitted human infection with the civet strain, which, in turn, adapted to become the epidemic strain (Fig. 4a).
However, phylogenetic analysis suggests that early human SARS strains appear more closely related to bat strains than to civet strains18.
Therefore, a second paradigm argues that direct bat-human transmission initiated SARS-CoV emergence and that palm civets served as a secondary host and reservoir for continued infection (Fig. 4b)19. For both paradigms, spike adaptation in a secondary host is seen as a necessity, with most mutations expected to occur within the RBD, thereby facilitating improved infection. Both theories imply that pools of bat CoVs are limited and that host-range mutations are both random and rare, reducing the likelihood of future emergence events in humans.
Figure 4: Emergence paradigms for coronaviruses.
Coronavirus strains are maintained in quasi-species pools circulating in bat populations.
(a,b) Traditional SARS-CoV emergence theories posit that host-range mutants (red circle) represent random and rare occurrences that permit infection of alternative hosts. The secondary-host paradigm
(a) argues that a nonhuman host is infected by a bat progenitor virus and, through adaptation, facilitates transmission to humans; subsequent replication in humans leads to the epidemic viral strain. The direct paradigm
(b) suggests that transmission occurs between bats and humans without the requirement of an intermediate host; selection then occurs in the human population with closely related viruses replicating in a secondary host, permitting continued viral persistence and adaptation in both.
(c) The data from chimeric SARS-like viruses argue that the quasi-species pools maintain multiple viruses capable of infecting human cells without the need for mutations (red circles). Although adaptations in secondary or human hosts may be required for epidemic emergence, if SHC014 spike–containing viruses recombined with virulent CoV backbones (circles with green outlines), then epidemic disease may be the result in humans. Existing data support elements of all three paradigms.
Although our study does not invalidate the other emergence routes, it does argue for a third paradigm in which circulating bat CoV pools maintain ‘poised’ spike proteins that are capable of infecting humans without mutation or adaptation (Fig. 4c). This hypothesis is illustrated by the ability of a chimeric virus containing the SHC014 spike in a SARS-CoV backbone to cause robust infection in both human airway cultures and in mice without RBD adaptation.
Coupled with the observation of previously identified pathogenic CoV backbones3,20, our results suggest that the starting materials required for SARS-like emergent strains are currently circulating in animal reservoirs. Notably, although full-length SHC014-CoV probably requires additional backbone adaption to mediate human disease, the documented high-frequency recombination events in CoV families underscores the possibility of future emergence and the need for further preparation.
To date, genomics screens of animal populations have primarily been used to identify novel viruses in outbreak settings21. The approach here extends these data sets to examine questions of viral emergence and therapeutic efficacy. We consider viruses with the SHC014 spike a potential threat owing to their ability to replicate in primary human airway cultures, the best available model for human disease. In addition, the observed pathogenesis in mice indicates a capacity for SHC014-containing viruses to cause disease in mammalian models, without RBD adaptation.
Notably, differential tropism in the lung as compared to that with SARS-MA15 and attenuation of full-length SHC014-CoV in HAE cultures relative to SARS-CoV Urbani suggest that factors beyond ACE2 binding—including spike processivity, receptor bio-availability or antagonism of the host immune responses—may contribute to the emergence. However, further testing in nonhuman primates is required to translate these findings into the pathogenic potential in humans.
Importantly, the failure of available therapeutics defines a critical need for further study and for the development of treatments. With this knowledge, surveillance programs, diagnostic reagents, and effective treatments can be produced that are protective against the emergence of group 2b–specific CoVs, such as SHC014, and these can be applied to other CoV branches that maintain similarly heterogeneous pools.
In addition to offering preparation against future emerging viruses, this approach must be considered in the context of the US government-mandated pause on gain-of-function (GOF) studies22.
On the basis of previous models of emergence (Fig. 4a,b), the creation of chimeric viruses such as SHC014-MA15 was not expected to increase pathogenicity. Although SHC014-MA15 is attenuated relative to its parental mouse-adapted SARS-CoV, similar studies examining the pathogenicity of CoVs with the wild-type Urbani spike within the MA15 backbone showed no weight loss in mice and reduced viral replication23. Thus, relative to the Urbani spike–MA15 CoV, SHC014-MA15 shows again in pathogenesis (Fig. 1).
On the basis of these findings, scientific review panels may deem similar studies building chimeric viruses based on circulating strains too risky to pursue, as increased pathogenicity in mammalian models cannot be excluded.
Coupled with restrictions on mouse-adapted strains and the development of monoclonal antibodies using escape mutants, research into CoV emergence and therapeutic efficacy may be severely limited moving forward. Together, these data and restrictions represent a crossroads of GOF research concerns; the potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens. In developing policies moving forward, it is important to consider the value of the data generated by these studies and whether these types of chimeric virus studies warrant further investigation versus the inherent risks involved.
Overall, our approach has used metagenomics data to identify a potential threat posed by the circulating bat SARS-like CoV SHC014. Because of the ability of chimeric SHC014 viruses to replicate in human airway cultures, cause pathogenesis in vivo and escape current therapeutics, there is a need for both surveillance and improved therapeutics against circulating SARS-like viruses. Our approach also unlocks the use of metagenomics data to predict viral emergence and to apply this knowledge in preparing to treat future emerging virus infections.
Methods
Viruses, cells, in vitro infection and plaque assays
Wild-type SARS-CoV (Urbani), mouse-adapted SARS-CoV (MA15) and chimeric SARS-like CoVs were cultured on Vero E6 cells (obtained from United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases), grown in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) (Gibco, CA) and 5% fetal clone serum (FCS) (Hyclone, South Logan, UT) along with antibiotic/antimycotic (Gibco, Carlsbad, CA). DBT cells (Baric laboratory, source unknown) expressing ACE2 orthologs have been previously described for both human and civet; bat Ace2 sequence was based on that from Rhinolophus leschenaulti, and DBT cells expressing bat Ace2 were established as described previously8.
Pseudotyping experiments were similar to those using an HIV-based pseudovirus, prepared as previously described10, and examined on HeLa cells (Wuhan Institute of Virology) that expressed ACE2 orthologs. HeLa cells were grown in minimal essential medium (MEM) (Gibco, CA) supplemented with 10% FCS (Gibco, CA) as previously described24.
Growth curves in Vero E6, DBT, Calu-3 2B4, and primary human airway epithelial cells were performed as previously described8,25. None of the working cell line stocks were authenticated or tested for mycoplasma recently, although the original seed stocks used to create the working stocks are free from contamination. Human lungs for HAE cultures were procured under the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institutional Review Board–approved protocols. HAE cultures represent highly differentiated human airway epithelium containing ciliated and non-ciliated epithelial cells as well as goblet cells. The cultures are also grown on an air-liquid interface for several weeks before use, as previously described26.
Briefly, cells were washed with PBS and inoculated with the virus or mock-diluted in PBS for 40 min at 37 °C. After inoculation, cells were washed three times and a fresh medium was added to signify time ‘0’. Three or more biological replicates were harvested at each described time point. No blinding was used in any sample collections nor was samples randomized. All virus cultivation was performed in a biosafety level (BSL) 3 laboratory with redundant fans in the biosafety cabinets, as described previously by our group2. All personnel wore powered air-purifying respirators (Breathe Easy, 3M) with Tyvek suits, aprons, and booties and were double-gloved.
Sequence clustering and structural modeling.
The full-length genomic sequences and the amino acid sequences of the S1 domains of the spike of representative CoVs were downloaded from Genbank or Pathosystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC), aligned with ClustalX and phylogenetically compared by using maximum likelihood estimation using 100 bootstraps or by using the PhyML package, respectively. The tree was generated using maximum likelihood with the PhyML package. The scale bar represents nucleotide substitutions. Only nodes with bootstrap support above 70% are labeled.
The tree shows that CoVs are divided into three distinct phylogenetic groups defined as α-CoVs, β-CoVs, and γ-CoVs. Classical subgroup clusters are marked as 2a, 2b, 2c, and 2d for β-CoVs, and 1a and 1b for the α-CoVs. Structural models were generated using Modeller (Max Planck Institute Bioinformatics Toolkit) to generate homology models for SHC014 and Rs3367 of the SARS RBD in complex with ACE2 based on crystal structure 2AJF (Protein Data Bank). Homology models were visualized and manipulated in MacPyMol (version 1.3).
Construction of SARS-like chimeric viruses.
Both wild-type and chimeric viruses were derived from either SARS-CoV Urbani or the corresponding mouse-adapted (SARS-CoV MA15) infectious clone (ic) as previously described27.
Plasmids containing spike sequences for SHC014 were extracted by restriction digest and ligated into the E and F plasmid of the MA15 infectious clone. The clone was designed and purchased from Bio Basic as six contiguous cDNAs using published sequences flanked by unique class II restriction endonuclease sites (BglI). Thereafter, plasmids containing wild-type, chimeric SARS-CoV, and SHC014-CoV genome fragments were amplified, excised, ligated, and purified.
In vitro transcription reactions were then performed to synthesize full-length genomic RNA, which was transfected into Vero E6 cells as previously described2. The medium from transfected cells was harvested and served as seed stocks for subsequent experiments. Chimeric and full-length viruses were confirmed by sequence analysis before use in these studies. Synthetic construction of chimeric mutant and full-length SHC014-CoV was approved by the University of North Carolina Institutional Biosafety Committee and the Dual Use Research of Concern committee.
Ethics statement
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations for the care and use of animals by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), NIH. The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, Permit Number A-3410-01) approved the animal study protocol (IACUC #13-033) used in these studies.
Mice and in vivo infection
Female, 10-week-old, and 12-month-old BALB/cAnNHsD mice were ordered from Harlan Laboratories. Mouse infections were done as previously described20. Briefly, animals were brought into a BSL3 laboratory and allowed to acclimate for 1 week before infection. For infection and live-attenuated virus vaccination, mice were anesthetized with a mixture of ketamine and xylazine and infected intranasally, when challenged, with 50 μl of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or diluted virus with three or four mice per time point, per infection group per dose as described in the figure legends.
For individual mice, notations for infection including failure to inhale the entire dose, bubbling of inoculum from the nose, or infection through the mouth may have led to exclusion of mouse data at the discretion of the researcher; post-infection, no other pre-established exclusion or inclusion criteria are defined. No blinding was used in any animal experiments, and animals were not randomized. For vaccination, young and aged mice were vaccinated by footpad injection with a 20-μl volume of either 0.2 μg of double-inactivated SARS-CoV vaccine with alum or mock PBS; mice were then boosted with the same regimen 22 d later and challenged 21 d thereafter.
For all groups, as per protocol, animals were monitored daily for clinical signs of disease (hunching, ruffled fur, and reduced activity) for the duration of the experiment. Weight loss was monitored daily for the first 7 d, after which weight monitoring continued until the animals recovered to their initial starting weight or displayed weight gain continuously for 3 d.
All mice that lost greater than 20% of their starting body weight were ground-fed and further monitored multiple times per day as long as they were under the 20% cutoff. Mice that lost greater than 30% of their starting body weight were immediately sacrificed as per protocol. Any mouse deemed to be moribund or unlikely to recover was also humanely sacrificed at the discretion of the researcher. Euthanasia was performed using an isoflurane overdose and death was confirmed by cervical dislocation. All mouse studies were performed at the University of North Carolina (Animal Welfare Assurance #A3410-01) using protocols approved by the UNC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Histological analysis.
The left lung was removed and submerged in 10% buffered formalin (Fisher) without inflation for 1 week. Tissues were embedded in paraffin and 5-μm sections were prepared by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center histopathology core facility. To determine the extent of antigen staining, sections were stained for viral antigen using a commercially available polyclonal SARS-CoV anti-nucleocapsid antibody (Imgenex) and scored in a blinded manner by for staining of the airway and parenchyma as previously described20. Images were captured using an Olympus BX41 microscope with an Olympus DP71 camera.
Virus neutralization assays.
Plaque reduction neutralization titer assays were performed with previously characterized antibodies against SARS-CoV, as previously described11,
12,13
. Briefly, neutralizing antibodies or serum was serially diluted twofold and incubated with 100 p.f.u. of the different infectious clone, SARS-CoV strains for 1 h at 37 °C. The virus and antibodies were then added to a 6-well plate with 5 × 105 Vero E6 cells/well with multiple replicates (n ≥ 2). After a 1-h incubation at 37 °C, cells were overlaid with 3 ml of 0.8% agarose in a medium. Plates were incubated for 2 d at 37 °C, stained with neutral red for 3 h, and plaques were counted. The percentage of plaque reduction was calculated as (1 − (no. of plaques with an antibody/no. of plaques without antibody)) × 100.
Statistical analysis
All experiments were conducted contrasting two experimental groups (either two viruses, or vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts). Therefore, significant differences in viral titer and histology scoring were determined by a two-tailed Student’s t-test at individual time points. Data were normally distributed in each group being compared and had similar variance.
Biosafety and biosecurity
Reported studies were initiated after the University of North Carolina Institutional Biosafety Committee approved the experimental protocol (Project Title: Generating infectious clones of bat SARS-like CoVs; Lab Safety Plan ID: 20145741; Schedule G ID: 12279).
SARS-CoV is a select agent. All work for these studies was performed with approved standard operating procedures (SOPs) and safety conditions for SARS-CoV, MERs-CoV, and other related CoVs. Our institutional CoV BSL3 facilities have been designed to conform to the safety requirements that are recommended in the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the NIH. Laboratory safety plans were submitted to, and the facility has been approved for use by, the UNC Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) and the CDC. Electronic card access is required for entry into the facility.
All workers have been trained by EHS to safely use powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs), and appropriate work habits in a BSL3 facility and active medical surveillance plans are in place. Our CoV BSL3 facilities contain redundant fans, emergency power to fans and biological safety cabinets and freezers, and our facilities can accommodate SealSafe mouse racks. Materials classified as BSL3 agents consist of SARS-CoV, bat CoV precursor strains, MERS-CoV and mutants derived from these pathogens. Within the BSL3 facilities, experimentation with an infectious virus is performed in a certified Class II Biosafety Cabinet (BSC).
All members of the staff wear scrubs, Tyvek suits and aprons, PAPRs and shoe covers, and their hands are double-gloved. BSL3 users are subject to a medical surveillance plan monitored by the University Employee Occupational Health Clinic (UEOHC), which includes a yearly physical, annual influenza vaccination and mandatory reporting of any symptoms associated with CoV infection during periods when working in the BSL3. All BSL3 users are trained in exposure management and reporting protocols, are prepared to self-quarantine and have been trained for safe delivery to a local infectious disease management department in an emergency situation. All potential exposure events are reported and investigated by EHS and UEOHC, with reports filed to both the CDC and the NIH.
Accession codes
Accessions
Protein Data Bank
2AJF
Change history
20 November 2015
In the version of this article initially published online, the authors omitted to acknowledge a funding source, USAID-EPT-PREDICT funding from EcoHealth Alliance, to Z.-L.S. The error has been corrected for the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.
References
Ge, X.Y. et al. Isolation and characterization of a bat SARS-like coronavirus that uses the ACE2 receptor. Nature503, 535–538 (2013).
Yount, B. et al. Reverse genetics with a full-length infectious cDNA of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA100, 12995–13000 (2003).
Becker, M.M. et al. Synthetic recombinant bat SARS-like coronavirus is infectious in cultured cells and in mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA105, 19944–19949 (2008).
He, B. et al. Identification of diverse alphacoronaviruses and genomic characterization of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome–like coronavirus from bats in China. J. Virol.88, 7070–7082 (2014).
Sheahan, T. et al. Mechanisms of zoonotic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus host range expansion in human airway epithelium. J. Virol.82, 2274–2285 (2008).
Yoshikawa, T. et al. Dynamic innate immune responses of human bronchial epithelial cells to severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus infection. PLoS ONE5, e8729 (2010).
Sui, J. et al. Broadening of neutralization activity to directly block a dominant antibody-driven SARS-coronavirus evolution pathway. PLoS Pathog.4, e1000197 (2008).
Sui, J. et al. Effects of human anti–spike protein receptor-binding domain antibodies on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus neutralization escape and fitness. J. Virol.88, 13769–13780 (2014).
Rockx, B. et al. Escape from human monoclonal antibody neutralization effects in vitro and in vivo fitness of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J. Infect. Dis.201, 946–955 (2010).
Spruth, M. et al. A double-inactivated whole-virus candidate SARS coronavirus vaccine stimulates neutralizing and protective antibody responses. Vaccine24, 652–661 (2006).
Bolles, M. et al. A double-inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus vaccine provides incomplete protection in mice and induces increased eosinophilic proinflammatory pulmonary response upon challenge. J. Virol.85, 12201–12215 (2011).
Deming, D. et al. Vaccine efficacy in senescent mice challenged with recombinant SARS-CoV bearing epidemic and zoonotic spike variants. PLoS Med.3, e525 (2006).
Graham, R.L. & Baric, R.S. Recombination, reservoirs and the modular spike: mechanisms of coronavirus cross-species transmission. J. Virol.84, 3134–3146 (2010).
Frieman, M. et al. Molecular determinants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus pathogenesis and virulence in young and aged mouse models of human disease. J. Virol.86, 884–897 (2012).
Ren, W. et al. Difference in receptor usage between severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus and SARS-like coronavirus of bat origin. J. Virol.82, 1899–1907 (2008).
Sims, A.C. et al. Release of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus nuclear import block enhances host transcription in human lung cells. J. Virol.87, 3885–3902 (2013).
Research in this manuscript was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease and the National Institute of Aging of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) under awards U19AI109761 (R.S.B.), U19AI107810 (R.S.B.), AI085524 (W.A.M.), F32AI102561 (V.D.M.) and K99AG049092 (V.D.M.), and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China awards 81290341 (Z.-L.S.) and 31470260 (X.-Y.G.), and by USAID-EPT-PREDICT funding from EcoHealth Alliance (Z.-L.S.). Human airway epithelial cultures were supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease of the NIH under award NIH DK065988 (S.H.R.). We also thank M.T. Ferris (Dept. of Genetics, University of North Carolina) for the reviewing of statistical approaches and C.T. Tseng (Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch) for providing Calu-3 cells. Experiments with the full-length and chimeric SHC014 recombinant viruses were initiated and performed before the GOF research funding pause and have since been reviewed and approved for continued study by the NIH. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
Author information
Affiliations
Department of Epidemiology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Vineet D Menachery
, Boyd L Yount Jr
, Kari Debbink
, Lisa E Gralinski
, Jessica A Plante
, Rachel L Graham
, Trevor Scobey
, Eric F Donaldson
& Ralph S Baric
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Kari Debbink
& Ralph S Baric
National Center for Toxicological Research, Food and Drug Administration, Jefferson, Arkansas, USA
Sudhakar Agnihothram
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Xing-Yi Ge
& Zhengli-Li Shi
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Scott H Randell
Cystic Fibrosis Center, Marsico Lung Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Scott H Randell
Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona Institute of Microbiology, Zurich, Switzerland
Antonio Lanzavecchia
Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Wayne A Marasco
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Wayne A Marasco
Contributions
V.D.M. designed, coordinated and performed experiments, completed the analysis and wrote the manuscript. B.L.Y. designed the infectious clone and recovered chimeric viruses; S.A. completed neutralization assays; L.E.G. helped perform mouse experiments; T.S. and J.A.P. completed mouse experiments and plaque assays; X.-Y.G. performed pseudotyping experiments; K.D. generated structural figures and predictions; E.F.D. generated phylogenetic analysis; R.L.G. completed RNA analysis; S.H.R. provided primary HAE cultures; A.L. and W.A.M. provided critical monoclonal antibody reagents; and Z.-L.S. provided SHC014 spike sequences and plasmids. R.S.B. designed experiments and wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence to Vineet D Menachery or Ralph S Baric.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary Figures 1–6 and Supplementary Tables 1–4 (PDF 4747 kb)
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Cite this article
Menachery, V., Yount, B., Debbink, K. et al. A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence. Nat Med21, 1508–1513 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3985
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Yeah, here’s yet another one of those posts that you won’t find anywhere else. Like [1] the idea that COVID-19 was a bio-weapon, and [2] the details about what the Hybrid-war by Trump on China entailed. I mean, for Pete’s Sake’s everyone! Can’t anyone else put the details together? Why the fuck do I have to do it? Eh?
Putting “the pieces” together isn’t difficult. You just need to be aware, and be able to discern. You collect information from all over. You try to avoid “echo chambers”, no matter how interesting or “delicious” they are to your own personal view points. And you just start looking for patterns.
You look for patterns.
Then while others are busy studying with the pieces that they find the most interesting, you will have a much broader outlook, and one that tends to be accurate.
.
Sigh.
Where are those highly paid “journalists” from CNN, FOX or MSNBC? Where the fuck are they now? Yes, I know, I know, they are there to manipulate, not to “report news”, but for crying out loud, it’s NOT a difficult subject to report on.
A few billion dollars are used to “send a message” to China. The propaganda campaign against China was on full-swing, and the Internet (on the neocon and War-Hawk websites) that America was “gonna kick some slant-eyed ass”. Everywhere (on the Conservative, and Neocon websites) were discussions about how “Trump was finally doing something about the evil Chinese Communists”.
Then everything went quiet.
Quiet, as in “armada? What armada?” Quiet as “you can hear a pin drop”. Quiet as the darkest dead of night. Quiet as in “Hey! Wake up! Is anyone in the Pentagon Press Room?” Quiet. Hush.
…whisper…
This quiet is what is so very disturbing. This quiet is what is worrisome to me. This quiet is what speaks volumes. This quiet is what we should all pay attention to.
OK. Let’s keep this all short and sweet.
The Basics.
As China emerges as a leading Superpower, the established nation (the United States) attempts to prevent it’s rise.
There are all sorts of reasonings, and justifications for this.
And yes it is true, it would take years to go over everything in detail. But the simple fact behind this is that the Geo-political conflicts between the USA and China fall under the Thucydides trap.
The Thucydides Trap is a theory proposed by Graham Allison who postulates that war between a rising power and an established power is inevitable.
-What is Thucydides’s Trap?
Well, yeah.
The United States “fell” into this situation. And they followed the historical model. They didn’t even pause. The United States initiated a full-spectrum “hybrid” war against China, and has done absolutely everything within it’s power short of World War III with nuclear weapons.
I wrote about it HERE in great painstaking detail.
There are many, many aspects to this assault upon China, and they are all very interesting. Because the “wide spectrum” of assaults are spell-binding in their diversity, and stunning in their depth and scope.
However, this post is going to cover one very tiny and specific event.
This event is the Enormous US Navy led, Naval armada sent to engage China in the South China Sea during the late Summer of 2020.
Enormous.
United States led.
Seven, state of the art, Attack Battle Carriers and their air wings. It is the LARGEST armada in carriers ever.
Not even during World War II were there so many carriers massed in a armada to attack anything. At most, America put three in a armada. But seven! That is a world-record, and then some!
We are going to discuss this armada, and what happened. And maybe, just maybe, the reader can get a serious insight into what actually transpired while Trump danced and placed the entire world at the brink of Nuclear Armageddon.
The Armada
Let’s start with the armada. This is a large collection of flotillas (of military naval vessels) all involved in the South China Sea.
Definition of armada.
1 : a fleet of warships
A Spanish word that originally meant simply "armed", armada is now used in Spanish-speaking nations as the name of their national navies. In English, the word usually has historical overtones. The Great Armada of 1588 was a 120-ship fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in an attempt to invade Elizabethan England; it was defeated when British forces lit eight ships afire and sent them sailing into the Armada's midst, then blocked the passage to the south so that the remaining ships were forced to sail northward around Britain in order to return home, causing dozens more ships to be wrecked in the stormy northern seas. Today we sometimes use the word humorously for fleets of fishing boats, rowboats, or canoes.
-Armada | Definition of Armada by Merriam-Webster
Let’s look at a graphical representation of what was sent against China in the late Summer of 2020. Let’s look at all the aircraft carriers in the world, by all the Navies of the world and see what President Trump amassed…
The American led armada sent against China, by Donald Trump, during the Summer of 2020. . The Trump Naval forces are encircled in red, while the Chinese forces are shown in blue. The red “X” represents the mysterious fire that destroyed the aircraft carrier in harbor in San Diego, the USS Bonhomme Richard.
.
This armada consisted of Three (x3) American assault carrier battle groups and one British aircraft carrier battle group. The major vessels that the US mobilized were three aircraft carriers – USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan – supposedly to patrol the Indo-Pacific waters.
Additionally, each aircraft carrier was paired with a “minor” carrier.
And each aircraft carrier was surrounded by it’s own flotilla of support ships and destroyers to provide protection to the carriers.
Four Carrier Battle Groups
An aircraft carrier is extremely valuable.
And without protection, an aircraft carrier is extremely vulnerable.
That’s why aircraft carriers never leave home alone. They are always escorted by an extensive flotilla of other ships. The aircraft carrier plus the flotilla is known as the carrier battle group. A modern carrier battle group is nearly invincible.
The U.S. Navy forms carrier battle groups on an as-needed basis and assigns ships to the group based on the mission. Therefore, no two carrier battle groups are the same. However, a typical carrier battle group consists of the following ships:
The aircraft carrier itself
Two guided-missile cruisers (These are offensive ships loaded with cruise missiles.)
Two destroyers (Defensive role)
One frigate (Anti-submarine defense)
Two submarines
A supply ship.
To accomplish its mission, a carrier air wing typically consists of nine squadrons, with 70 to 80 total aircraft.
The British carrier group
The British was the only nation to join this armada.
While Mike Pompeo “invited” the Navies of India, Japan, Korea, and Australia to join, it was only Britain that agreed to actively place their military off the coast of China for the purposes of threatening China.
HMS Queen Elizabeth
HMS Queen Elizabeth leads flotilla of ships as new carrier strike group assembles for first time
Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth leading the largest and most powerful task force assembled by a European Navy in almost 20 years.
What was the Royal Navy’s new Carrier Strike Group made up of?
HMS Queen Elizabeth – Royal Navy Aircraft carrier – Weighs: 65,000 tonnes, Length: 930 feet, Speed: 25+ knots, Use: Carries 65 aircraft at surge capacity
HMS Diamond – Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer – Weighs: 8,000 tonnes, Length: 500 feet, Speed: 30+ knots, Weapons: Fleet of helicopters, anti-air and anti-ship missiles
HMS Defender – Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer – Weighs: 8,000 tonnes, Length: 500 feet, Speed: 30+ knots, Weapons: Fleet of helicopters, anti-air and anti-ship missiles
USS The Sullivans – US Navy Destroyer – Weighs: 6,900 tonnes, Length: 505 feet, Speed: 30 knots, Weapons: Guided missiles, with guns, torpedoes and two helicopters
HMS Northumberland – Royal Navy Frigate – Weighs: 4,900 tonnes, Length: 435 feet, Speed: 28+ knots, Weapons: Torpedoes and missiles
HMS Kent – Royal Navy Frigate – Weighs: 4,900 tonnes, Length: 435 feet, Speed: 28+ knots, Weapons: Torpedoes and missiles
HNLMS Eversten – Royal Netherlands Navy Frigate – Weighs: 6,000 tonnes, Length: 470 metres, Speed: 28+ knots, Weapons: Guns, missiles and helicopters
RFA Tideforce – Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ships – Weighs: 37,000 tonnes, Length: 201 metres, Speed: 27+ knots, Weapons: Cannons, Primary Use: Replenishment tanker
RFA Fort Victoria – Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ships – Weighs: 37,000 tonnes, Length: 201 metres, Speed: 27+ knots, Weapons: Cannons, Primary Use: Replenishment tanker
The group also includes 15 fighter jets, 11 helicopters and 3,000 personnel from the UK, US and the Netherlands
Meanwhile, HMS Queen Elizabeth embarked two squadrons of F-35B stealth jets, the UK’s 617 Squadron and US Marine Corps fighter attack squadron 211.
Alongside eight Merlin helicopters of 820 and 846 Naval Air Squadrons, it is the largest air group to operate from a Royal Navy carrier in more than thirty years, and the largest air group of fifth generation fighters at sea anywhere in the world, say the Royal Navy.
The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier led the flotilla of destroyers and frigates from the UK, US and the Netherlands, together with two Royal Fleet Auxiliaries
HMS Queen Elizabeth embarked two squadrons of F-35B stealth jets, the UK’s 617 Squadron and US Marine Corps fighter attack squadron 211
Yes, you read that right.
Not only was America sending multiple carriers off to the South China Sea to intimidate China, but the British carrier also carried American Navy and Marine aircraft and combat wings.
Most of the combat aircraft on the British Carrier were American, flown by Americans, and coordinated with American naval Forces.
The “minor carriers”
What is a “minor” carrier? This is a confusing term, because everyone has their own ideas of what it is. For our purposes herein, it is an aircraft carrier without a runway.
These are NOT small ships. They are all quite enormous.
“Minor carrier” USS Bonhomme Richard.
It is an aircraft carrier that focuses on helicopters, VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft and other aircraft that do not require a runway to land. By pairing a “major” carrier with these “minor” carriers, the Navy can increase the size of the hard and heavy attack and strike aircraft that the “major” carriers use.
Conventional take-off and landing [CTOL] and short take-off and landing [STOL] carriers share a common configuration: a hangar enclosed within a hull, a large flight deck on the hangar roof, take-off runway/s, landing runway/s and pad/s on that flight deck, lifts connecting the hangar and flight decks, and a superstructure off to one side of the flight deck. CTOL carriers such as the USS Nimitz have catapults, arresters and, usually, several runways, some angled. STOL carriers such as HMS Invincible usually have a single through runway serving as take-off runway, landing runway and pad; they usually also have a ski jump because in practice they only operate STOVL and VTOL aircraft. Some 1930s carriers also had an additional take-off runway located on the hangar deck before the hangar, the rear portion of this runway being enclosed under the forward part of the main flight deck.
Another carrier is known, this being a STOVL [short take-off / vertical landing] vessel without a landing runway: a large container ship on which containers stacked before the superstructure form a flight deck with a take-off runway, a pad and a ski jump. A STOVL vessel is an adequate carrier because even STOL vessels in practice only deploy STOVL and VTOL aircraft. VTOL [vertial take-off and landing] carriers are also known: some such as the French Jeanne d'Arc configured with a large hangar aft, a large pad atop it, and lifts connecting those decks; a carrier for V/STOL-as-VTOL aircraft with no pad but using a device developed by British Aerospace to release and recover hovering V/STOL-as-VTOL aircraft has also been proposed. Most VTOL vessels are not aircraft carriers per se, but are other-role ships, usually small, configured in one of two ways: with a hangar on the main deck abaft the superstructure and a pad abaft the hangar; with only an aft pad.
In contrast, CTOL, STOL and STOVL vessels are all large and, effectively, all aircaft carriers; this because all built or proposed have at least one of the following: a fore and aft flight deck with a superstructure beside it and therefore a wide beam; a heavy flight deck on the hangar roof and therefore a hangar of a construction sturdy enough to support it and a large hull to offset the resulting top-heaviness; a hangar enclosed in the hull and therefore a hull of wide beam; a hangar-deck with a take-off runway, that deck therefore being high above the waves; an in-line take-off runway and hangar or in-line take-off runway and superstructure and therefore a long hull; complex and/or heavy machinery like catapults, arresters and, especially, lifts.
-GlobalSecurity
The decision to add “minor” carriers to these deployed flotillas doubled the size of them. So the actual size of each of the three American Carrier Battle Groups consisted of…
The MAIN aircraft carrier
A VTOL / Helicopter “minor” carrier
Four guided-missile cruisers
Four destroyers (Defensive role)
Two frigates
Four submarines
One or two supply ships
These are truly formidable flotillas. They are historically the largest and most powerful flotillas in the history of mankind.
What is amazing is that President Trump sent FOUR of them to China.
You will be aware that this was planned and a time-table laid out back in 2016. With an invasion or an “incident” planned for late Summer 2020, within two to four months before the election.
An “incident” in the South China Sea in late Summer 2020.
To coincide with the other “color revolutions” in HK, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
Resulting in a [1] strengthening of the QUAD, [2] coordinating with the “fire hose of propaganda” making Americans “foam at the mouth” for a war in far-away China.
That it would be a success, and that the American media would promote it as Trump “spreading democracy” TM to the heathen evil “Chinese communists” TM for “freedom! and democracy!” TM.
Which not only would bolster his election chances immensely, but would accomplish his goals. Which are, of course, a complete suppression of all global trade, and a total reduction in the ability, power and might of China.
With a war or conflict to characterize much of his second term from 2020 into 2024, at which point a new conservative neocon would continue his efforts to “make America great again”.
My personal opinion is that Mike Pompeo is being groomed for this role; as President of the United States once President Trump completes his second term in office.
Just who is this “Mr. Mike Pompeo” and why is he pushing so insanely hard to start World War III with China?
Hasn’t he even thought out the consequences of a radioactive New York?
Answer; No he hasn’t.
Mike Pompeo is a neocon psychopath who is attempting to start a war with China for some reason.
In America, we have some very, very big problems.
For one thing, the economy was totally destroyed because of an idiotic flu hoax. When the government decides that it can no longer print unlimited money, we are going to have mass unemployment, mass homelessness, drug addiction, divorce, robbery, murder, and everything else.
Beyond that, we are in the middle of a total communist revolution. Virtually every major city in the country is being overwhelmed by a violent mob of black blasters and their screeching white female masters, as they proceed to tear down the entire civilization.
Many people do not think that now is the right time to start some insane world war with the Chinese in order to protect Hong Kong democracy or the Moslems or Vietnamese fishing waters or whatever the hell.
Many people, however, are not Mike Pompeo.
Mike Pompeo believes that right now is the perfect time to fight for democracy against the Chinese.
Mike Pompeo believes America is a country controlled by vicious Jews, and we need to do what slaves of Jews do best: fight random, confusing wars in the name of Israel.
----------
Reference CNN;
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continued his rhetorical barrage against China as the top diplomat at the Chinese consulate in Houston suggested they may defy US orders to vacate.
Pompeo’s remarks at the Nixon Library Thursday, titled “Communist China and the Free World’s Future,” cast aspersions on Beijing and its relations with the US, nearly 50 years after President Richard Nixon became the first US president to travel to China.
“We must admit our truth that should guide us in the years and decades to come, that if we want to have a free 21st century, and not the Chinese century of which Xi Jinping dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done,” he said. “We must not continue it and we must not return to it.”
He appeared to cast the US-China competition as a modern day Cold War, saying that “securing our freedoms from the Chinese Communist Party is the mission of our time and America is perfectly positioned to lead it.”
Pompeo delivered the speech on the heels of a US order to close the Chinese consulate in Houston — “because it was a hub of spying and intellectual property theft,” in his words. The order — the latest in a series of escalations between Washington and Beijing — demands that the Chinese shutter the property by Friday.
----------
Yes. They’re saying that they were using the Houston consulate to steal intellectual property.
Of course, he won’t ever explain what that means, because it makes no sense. It is just gibberish.
China is engaged in mass intellectual property theft – they do it in the factories that our companies moved to their country! It’s in the contracts that they’re allowed total access to these factories.
Why would they be stealing intellectual property in Houston? Where would they steal it from? What does this even mean?
Nothing. It means nothing.
This is simply a belligerent provocation against a major superpower.
We have a helluva lot of problems in this country, and the idea that China is even in the top 20 is absurd. And the top issue that relates to China is trade. What Pompeo is doing with this insane belligerence is making trade negotiation totally impossible.
----------
Reference CNN;
However, in an interview with Politico Thursday, Consul General Cai Wei suggested the diplomatic outpost may defy that order.
“Today we are still operating normally, so we will see what will happen tomorrow,” he told the news outlet, but did not elaborate further.
Chinese officials have urged the United States to reverse its decision and have threatened retaliation.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said that they “had to make the decision to close down this consulate due to this massive, massive theft of our research and our intellectual property.”
“We’ve uncovered spy rings,” she claimed in an interview with “Quest Means Business” Thursday.“But most importantly, I think what has been very troubling to us is the theft of research from our universities, from our hospitals, the theft of intellectual property, the theft from technology companies. So the FBI and the Department of Justice have started to lay out the case and show the facts again,” she said.
A seven page document prepared by US law enforcement officials and shared across US government agencies details instances of covert People’s Liberation Army activity in the US, including details related to the Houston consulate specifically, according to the document reviewed by CNN.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied the allegations that the consulate was the “epicenter” of illicit activities.
----------
The transcript for the speech is not up yet on the State Department website.
I do NOT trust the Moron Brothers.
The reason that I was looking for the transcript is that I wanted to ctrl+f the word “free.” I think he must have said it 1,000 times in this speech. He said it in every single sentence.
It just makes me sick. It makes me nearly as sick as Angela Merkel saying anyone who questions the lockdown is a “fact-denier.”
America is not a free country.
It was a lunatic claim to make before the virus hoax, and at this point, anyone who says “America is a free country” belongs in a padded room. We are not only not free, we are the most un-free country in all of human history.
No people, ever, have been forced under threat of state violence to remain in their houses, having committed no crime.
No people have ever been forced to cover their faces in public.
No government has ever purposefully collapsed their nation’s economy, destroying millions of jobs and tens of thousands of small businesses.
These are all entirely new forms of oppression, invented by the 2020 United States government.
No one denies this.
They will just say, “but there’s a virus tho.”
Before the virus though, we still had nothing approaching the amount of freedom the people of China have.
Just look at freedom of speech.
In America, you are not allowed to:
Criticize Jews (the richest people in the country)
Criticize homosexuals
Criticize women
Criticize black people
Criticize immigration
Make fun of CNNQuestion the veracity of theSandy Hook shootingSay that men are not women
After the banning of QAnon memes from Twitter, it is unclear if
you are even allowed to support Donald Trump at all.
In China, you are not allowed to:
Denounce the government
Produce or distribute pornography
Promote homosexuality
It isn’t comparable.
In America, entire categories of thought are banned.
What’s more, the enforcement of speech violations is different.
In China, if you criticize the government after having been given a warning, you may get a fine.
In America, you can be hunted by a mob, and the government will not defend you. You can lose your job and not be able to get another job. Your family can be harassed. Intelligence agents will go see everyone you’ve ever met and threaten them, attempting to extort information about you from them.
What’s more, in America you don’t really even know what you’re allowed to say at any given moment. You can cross lines you didn’t know existed. In China, everyone who breaks speech rules knows what they’re doing before they hit “send.”
Furthermore, the US government has made it clear that protests that they don’t agree with are completely impossible. Three years ago, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Americans gathered to defend a statue commemorating a war our ancestors fought, and they were attacked by the police, driven into a violent mob of terrorists – then many of the protesters were charged with crimes, and sued. This was intended to send a message: the United States government will not tolerate dissent on the streets.
The pattern of allowing government-supporting terrorists to attack dissidents and then charging the victims with crimes has been well-established over the last four years. One high profile case involved the Proud Boys, who were stalked on the streets of New York by Antifa, and when they defended themselves, were arrested. The attackers refused to file charges because they wanted to keep their identities secret, so the city charged them with “rioting.”
In China you can protest freely.
No one attacks you. The cops do not gas you.
The US starting a war with China because they want to enforce freedom on them would be like China invading the US because they want to enforce good driving habits on us.
It is complete bullshit.
If we were invaded by the Chinese, there is zero chance that we would not have more freedom than we have right now in this country. People don’t like hearing that, but it is simply a fact.
I am not defending China. I do not support the Chinese system, and believe that the American Constitution is the very best system of government ever.
We are not operating under the system that was created by our Founding Fathers. Whatever you want to call this current system – “neoliberalism” seems to work, but take your pick, there isn’t really a word for it – it is totally unrelated to any previous system.
I do not want to be invaded and ruled by the Chinese. I want our own people to rule our own country.
I am just telling you what the situation is.
Shills on /pol/ are shilling this nonsense, just like they shilled the hell out of the coronavirus hoax.
What exactly are we even talking about here?
If China is threatening the United States, sure, let’s defend ourselves.
But they’re not threatening us.
They’re allegedly threatening Antifa rioters and Moslems in their own country, and a sea to the south of their country.
We have real problems. We should not even be talking about this.
-Pompeo the Hutt Signals a Desire for a War with the ..
A “fair warning” meeting of military leaders
Before the invasion flotilla and the supporting armadas left for China, military leaders from both China and the United States held a “meeting of the minds” in Hawaii.
China was fully willing and ready to discuss things, but the United States, Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo kept on postponing the meetings.
Often leaving the diplomats siting in bare, empty waiting rooms and lobby’s. It was entirely rude, very insulting, and set the tone for the events that followed.
When the meeting finally did occur, neither Donald Trump or Mike Pompeo attended. Just the Military “Brass” that was in charge of the Armada.
No one knows what was said. But knowing what I know about China, and my experience in the ONI, it was blunt, direct, to the point and very matter-of-fact.
My guess is that China told the Admirals and Military Leadership that any attack on any Chinese islands, ships, people or equipment will be met in similar fashion. And probably not to expect a “regional” conflict.
If America attacks China; Chinese soil and Chinese people….
China will attack America; American soil and American people.
The “News” Reports.
What is STUNNING is that very little of this was reported.
I mean, you have an armada the size of the D-Day invasion, and it was off the Chinese coast, so close that the people on the beaches could see the ships, and the pilots could oogle the girls in their swimsuits.
And it was RADIO SILENCE.
Sure there were articles. But if you try to find anything of substance, you will be sorely disappointed.
It’s all pretty much variations of the same theme;
China is a threat to democracy and “freedom” to shipping out of China. (Why China would ever want to destroy it’s own shipping venues is NEVER discussed.)
America must lead the world in “countering” China.
China is growing and must be stopped NOW!
America must respond militarily NOW, NOW, NOW!
If America does nothing, Communism will spread all over the globe.
Yeah. You get the idea.
Now as far as really specific details, they are no where to be found.
It’s buckets and buckets of non-essential data. But nothing regarding the actual actions, events, players, or events. The news as to what went on regarding the actual vessels during this period is very detailed, but doesn’t really say anything or provide any information.
As in what these following examples illustrate.
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71)
There’s a ton of articles about this carrier, but little in the way of detail.
The US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 have finished carrier qualifications.
In this period, the CVN 71 qualified pilots from the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31, Golden Warriors of VFA-87, Blue Diamonds of VFA-146 and Black Knights of VFA-154.
Pilots from Liberty Bells of Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 115, The Gray Wolves of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 142, and the Providers of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 were also qualified.
In support of carrier qualifications, the Eightballers of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8 and the Wolf Pack of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 75 also worked with the vessel.
US Navy Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 commander Captain Steve Jaureguizar said: “It is very gratifying to be able to return to our primary mission in the Indo-Pacific.
“The carrier air wing joined together with the carrier is the bedrock of naval aviation and power projection.”
During carrier qualifications, naval aviators sharpen their skills acquired during Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP).The operational relationship between CVW-11 and the Theodore Roosevelt is claimed to have been fortified by carrier qualifications.
-3JUN20 USS Theodore Roosevelt and CVW11 complete carrier qualifications
USS Nimitz
This is true for all the carriers involved. A great deal of information that pretty much says nothing. And for the USS Nimitz…
USS Nimitz, USS Ronald Reagan join for exercises in South China Sea
Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun 7/6/2020
SOUTH CHINA SEA — Fighter jets and other aircraft have launched around the clock on the USS Nimitz's flight deck in recent days as the Bremerton-based carrier performs a central role in the Navy's rare show of force in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Groups are conducting dual-carrier operations in the Indo-Pacific as the Nimitz CSF. The Nimitz and carrier USS Ronald Reagan have been performing exercises together to "strengthen warfighting readiness and proficiency," including simulations to strike enemy territory while in waters claimed by China and neighboring nations.
Even a B-52 Stratofortress bomber flew a 28-hour mission from Louisiana to participate in the exercises, the Air Force announced separately.
"Dual carrier operations demonstrate unique U.S. capabilities, increase carrier strike force command and control experience, and show our commitment to regional allies," said Capt. Todd Cimicata, commander of the Nimitz-based Carrier Air Wing 17, in a news release. "Additionally, our operations reinforce the rights, freedoms, and lawful use of the sea and airspace guaranteed by international law."
It's been six years since the Navy has performed dual-carrier operations in the sea, a critical waterway for trillions of dollars in annual trade — and one claimed by China as its territory. But that claim was rebuked by an international tribunal in 2016. Five other countries, including the Philippines, have overlapping claims in the sea.
The Chinese government, which has continued to develop military defenses in the sea on both natural and manmade islands, was not pleased at the news of the exercises, even as its own military held exercises nearby around the Paracel Islands.
More: Nimitz at sea: Getting a new crew of sailors deployment ready
"The U.S. is disrupting peace and stability of the South China Sea and pushing for militarization by sending military forces for large-scale military exercises," China's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Twitter Monday.
The Nimitz left Bremerton in late April to complete the rest of its strike group training and head out on deployment. Some 8,000 personnel had been in quarantine for the bulk of the month and all were tested for COVID-19 prior to departure.
In early June, with the completion of all of its pre-deployment training, the Nimitz charted a course across the Pacific with its strike group, including Everett-based ships. The carrier pulled into Guam for a port visit June 24, following dual-carrier operations with the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is back at sea following a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship earlier this year.
While ashore at Guam, sailors from the Nimitz could go to designated beaches to minimize the risk of contracting COVID-19.
"The morale boost this gives to the hardworking and dedicated Sailors and Marines onboard Nimitz, many of whom have been embarked aboard ship for nearly three months, is immeasurable," Nimitz Commanding Officer Capt. Max Clark, said in a news release.
Days later, it entered the Philippine Sea, followed by the South China Sea, where it continues operations with the Yokosuka, Japan, forward-deployed Reagan and its strike group. The Nimitz isn't likely to return to Bremerton before 2021.
-USS Nimitz, USS Ronald Reagan join for exercises in South ...
The USS Ronald Reagan
News on the USS Ronald Reagan…
USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan are now in the South China Sea for military drills, a U.S. Navy official confirms to Fox News.
"The purpose is to show an unambiguous signal to our partners and allies that we are committed to regional security and stability," Rear Adm. George Wikoff told the Wall Street Journal, which was the first media to report the exercises likely to irk Beijing.
The drills, to support a free and open Indo-Pacific and promote an international rules-based order, also included "round-the-clock flights testing the striking ability of carrier-based aircraft," he added.
The South China Sea is where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple territorial disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. The waters are a major shipping route for global commerce and are rich in fish and possible oil and gas reserves.
China’s People’s Liberation Army had been staging exercises off the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea since July 1, angering the Philippines, and Chinese maritime officials have prohibited all vessels from navigating within the area of the maneuvers.
In another message to China, a B-52 bomber from Louisiana flew a 28-hour mission to train with jets from the aircraft carriers Reagan and Nimitz in the South China Sea, according to the Air Force.
-US, China ramp up South China Sea tension with new military drills
As you can see, the “news” doesn’t say much except…
Ships sent to the South China Sea.
Purpose is to show an “unambiguous signal” to China.
Running simulations to strike enemy territory while in waters claimed by China.
Practicing joint carrier operations.
The “news” reports on the armada, it’s size and scope has not been well reported.
All historical comparisons are missing.
Any exclamation to the size and the nature of the mission parameters and the vast number of ships and fleet integration issues are all missing. Apparently, this entire effort is not to be publicized to the English Speaking Audiences in America and the UK.
No where, any where, is there any mention of the SIZE of the armada, and all the simultaneous efforts that Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State) was doing to organize a military coalition against China.
This coalition is known as “The Quad”.
The QUAD
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), better known as "Quad," took another key step toward its key goal of becoming an anti-China military alliance with the signing by the United States and India of a military agreement to share spy satellite data.
-US, India Sign Military Agreement During Pompeo, Esper Trip
The Quad, QDS or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal strategic assembly between four nations – The United States, India, Australia and Japan.
The forum was initiated as a dialogue in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney of the USA, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, and is maintained by meetings that occur on a semi-regular basis.
The dialogue was paralleled by joint military exercises of an unprecedented scale, titled Exercise Malabar. It existed officially from 2007-2008, after which it was partially dissolved due to the Australian withdrawal from this forum under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
.
However, it was re-established in 2017, during the ASEAN Summits, with all four former members rejoined in negotiations to revive the quadrilateral alliance. The intention was to re-purpose the QUAD as an Asian “NATO”. Which is intended to be a large regional military force under the direct command of the United States military. All for the express purposes of “suppressing”, “countering”, China’s rise in the area.
Not at all discussed is the regional QUAD members being urged to support the UK/American Naval armada while running their exercises in the region.
By most accounts there were some pressures being placed on the various nations, but most (with the exception of Australia) declined to engage militarily against China in any way.
Australia has signed a joint military agreement with the United States, which includes allowing the United States Navy to operate a Naval base on Australian territory..
For the United States Navy to operate near China, it needs strong logistic support.
To this end, the Trump administration has been trying to obtain this support by resurrecting the QUAD.
It appears that Australia has agreed to that role. While the rest of the nations are maintaining a neutral presence.
The Time Period
Ever since President Trump was elected, the relationship went from “Most Favored Trade Partner” in 2016 to “enemy” in 2019.
This entire event sequence was planned before Trump was President.
It predates 2017.
Apparently, the American Naval forces were to have moved into place in March 2020, but they were postponed when the battle fleets ended up getting COVID-19 coronavirus and had to dock at remote American Naval bases to recover.
As best that I can determine, the armada was schedule to coincide with [1] an uncontrollable out-break of COVID-19B on Chinese soil, [2] a “fire hose” of anti-Chinese propaganda, [3] and intentional riots in Hong Kong.
COVID-19B is the very lethal strain of Coronavirus. It hit China, Iran, and North Korea simultaneously. It causes brain seizures, and collapse. It operates in stealth, and incubates and then hits very suddenly after it sheds to others.
COVID-19A is the "herd immunity" strain. It is very mild and gives people a sore throat, but conveys immunity to the lethal strain. It hit America, and the Trump administration insisted that no one wear masks so that the entire nation could get this strain. And thus have immunity.
But none of what was expect actually happened.
The battle armada was delayed by the coronavirus COVID-19A.
The Hong Kong riots were suppressed successfully (A first for the CIA sponsored NED / NID operations. These “color revolutions” are very difficult to control, and the United States has had decades perfecting the techniques and systems.)
And China went DEFCON ONE on CNY 2020, and completely suppressed the COVID-19B bio-weapons attack.
Thus the armada fleet was delayed by four months.
The timetable was rescheduled to late-summer starting in July, and forces were in the Chinese waters and the South China Sea during July, August and September 2020.
The armada steamed home in Late September, October 2020.
The Events
So what happened?
Subs to sink all global shipping out of China
We know that the United States moved hunter-killer subs to the South China Sea to threaten China and all shipping out of China. These ships are designed and are on a mission to threaten to sink all shipping traffic out of China. That would suppress global trade like nothing else;
The US Naval submarine forces are being used like the German “Wolf Packs” of World War II; to sink shipping vessels. You remember, don’t you? Those diabolical Nazi Germans who were sinking ships left and right…
The Wolfpacks What is a Wolfpack? The wolfpacks, known to the Germans as Rudeltaktik, were created by Karl Donitz as a means to defeat the allied convoy system after his experiences as U-boat commander in World War 1. In June 1940 the first such operations were tried with the tactical control given to the senior officer of the group.The Wolfpacks - German U-boat Operations - Kriegsmarine ...
. Donald Trump threatens to end all global trade by making shipping by sea impossible. He placed hunter-killer subs on all the sea-lanes out of China. . He also sent Black-Ops submarines to the region as well…
American airborne forces practice invasion of islands and Chinese territory
We also know that the American Army has been practicing seizing islands by dropping paratroopers in practice runs.
ICBM missiles being fired towards China as a show of strength
We know that America is flexing it’s muscles and firing ICBM missiles as a warning to China…
A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday 2SEP20 at 12:03 a.m. The test launch used an unarmed missile that traveled over 4,000 miles, at a speed of more than 15,000 mph.
China shows that it will respond with it’s own missiles
China launches four of it’s “Aircraft Carrier Killer Missiles” into the South China Sea. DoD can confirm that the Chinese military launched four medium-range missiles Wednesday from mainland China,” a defense official said.”The missiles impacted in the South China Sea between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands,” the official added. “The launch appears to have been part of a previously announced exercise.”
Reports on what occurred during the American lead naval sortie in the South China Sea in late Summer 2020, are coming in…
… in drips and drabs.
Nothing much from America or the UK.
So what actually happened?
No one is speaking. It’s all “X Ray”.
Well we know the result of the armada adventure by what the Presidential Administration did next…
There is going to be a change in strategy. This new strategy would involve the use of AI controlled underwater weapons and drones. The use of a “traditional” assault force using a large force of carriers is not considered to be practical.
These energy beam weapons operate underwater as well as through the air.
Once disabled, the ships and aircraft lose full control, and all their anti-missile technology is useless.
Nuclear reactors on both aircraft carrier, and underwater submarines go “haywire” and have to manually SCRAM. All power is lost. All electronics fail, even on backup battery power. A nuclear meltdown is a serious risk.
The location of all submarines, and naval vessels in the South China Sea have been tracked in real time using a very extensive system of redundant sensor systems. The entire South China Sea is arrayed in a very detailed, redundant and extensive multi-layered network of Chinese sensors.
(Note; If it is reported, it's NOT secret) FOUR paramilitary CIA officers drowned while on a secret mission to plant an underwater pod intended to track the Chinese military in the South China Sea, it has emerged. The men were reportedly caught in a tropical storm while attempting to place the device, which had been disguised to resemble a rock, off the Philippine island of Luzon.
Meet the HN-1, China’s New AI-Powered Underwater Drone. The battle for future undersea AI dominance is heating up and China’s ambitions are not small in this domain.
The Chinese have intercepted clandestine troops in operations upon Chinese territory. It is unknown what has happened to them…
I wonder…
Curiously, from American Media…
There was an “accident” when American marine forces attempted a landing on “one of the islands off California”. All eight / nine of the soldiers are assumed dead. None were recovered. The justification is that the ocean is “too deep”, and they all died inside of an “amphibious tank”. But by looking at any oceanographic map of the islands off the California coast, we can see that this claim is simply not true.
Just keep in mind that there were many, many events and actions that were NOT reported to the public during this entire period of time.
Here is a nice interactive map of the (inferred) Chinese power projection in the South China Sea.
Apparently, while the United States Navy was conducting “maneuvers” in the South China Sea, with the five carrier assault groups and Marine Landing / Attack forces, as well as with the entire British carrier fleet…
…something else was happening simultaneously.
Well reported in the mainstream press, but no one was putting “two plus two” together. These strange “tictac” shaped UFO’s started to appear and “move freely” all over American military bases inside of America. At THE SAME TIME as the American Navy was “probing the Chinese coastal defenses“.
Whether they are “aliens” or not is a good question.
One thing is for certain, and that is the technology involved in these craft are far up and above (perhaps centuries) more advanced than anything the United States has fielded. They can “pop” into existence out of no-where. They are immune to radar, and thermal signatures. They can accelerate to enormous speeds in a short period of time, and they are equally capable of underwater, air and space travel.
Maybe, just maybe, the narrative that this is “Chinese technology” isn’t so outlandish. It seems odd, don’t you think, that extraterrestrials would be interested in probing American military bases at the same time that the United States assembled a major armada probing China’s coastal water.
“Chinese Tictac” UFO that was buzzing and moving in and out of American military installations and airbases while the American Naval flotilla was busy probing the Chinese Coasts during the Summer of 2020.
There are all sort’s of strange things going on.
And it is difficult to see patterns unless you are active in researching and collecting the drips and drabs that land here and there from the various “media” sources.
So, consider this bit of curious “news”…
Strange Events resulting in the destruction of an American “minor carrier”.
An American VTOL carrier catches fire and burns up. Imagine that!
My personal belief is that this is a “tit for tat” response to a similar fire that broke out on the largest Chinese helicopter carrier while in dock. It was undetermined how the fire started, and the Chinese did not blame anyone.
So let’s look at this.
A mysterious fire breaks out and engulfs the newest and most advanced VTOL Chinese carrier.
April 2020
China’s first Type-075 amphibious assault carrier, designed for launching helicopters, caught fire last week while docked in Shanghai.
The fire broke out aboard the Chinese ship on April 11, Forbes reported. The blazing carrier was China’s first amphibious assault carrier and the ship was set to be sailed down a nearby waterway within days of when the fire broke out.
Photos and videos of the burning ship first circulated around Chinese social media, and eventually Twitter.
The fire appears to have spread within the hull of the ship and possibly in the ship’s aircraft hangar. Smoke could be seen billowing out of the ship’s aircraft lift elevators.
Forbes reported that the fires caused extensive smoke damage to the hull before they were eventually put out. Black smoke stains could be seen from the ship’s stern, though the full extent of the fire’s spread and ensuing damage are not known.
The Chinese assault carrier is similar in design to the U.S. Wasp- and America-class assault carriers, which are meant for launching helicopters and vertical takeoff aircraft in support of amphibious landing operations.
-China’s first helo assault carrier catches fire
But we can see this as one of many such efforts by the trump Administration to attack and probe Chinese defenses.
The Navy’s USS Bonhomme Richard burned for days at its pier in San Diego. After the fire was put out, the Navy registered the destruction as “total” and wrote off the vessel as a total loss. No one claimed responsibility for the damage, and it is officially listed as “accidental” or “undefined”.
Donald Trump did blame Iran in some of his tweets, and accused them of this or that. But he has a history of doing that. So you all cam pretty much discount that.
A brand new Chinese Navy Assault Helicopter / VTOL Carrier catches fire while at dock. It is unknown what caused the fire.
Two months later an American assault Helicopter / VTOL Carrier catches fire while at dock. It is unknown what caused the fire. Both ships are equivalent in mission capabilities, size and deployment capabilities.
The Results
If you were to sum up everything in a pithy saying, you might say this…
The neocon Trump administration has decided to wage a full-spectrum war with China, on Chinese soil. To this end, they assembled a historically massive Naval armada and threatened China in the hopes of provoking a military response.
They expected to encounter a military run by disillusioned communist conscripts using 1980’s level technology, Instead, they found themselves unmatched and confronted to a determined, talented, and well equipped force with technology that is decades more advanced that what the United States fields.
The military refused to engage the Chinese forces, and as a result, there was no war to rally the United States against a common enemy. Donald Trump was expecting to be re-elected as a “war president”, as historically, all “war presidents” are always re-elected. (Which pretty much explains the “fire hose” of anti-China propaganda throughout all of 2020.)
As a result, the lack of a “hot war” or “incident” showing American “strength” contributed to an election loss. Reeling from the defeat, and blaming it on the imission of key re-election criteria, Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper upon his defeat in the general presidential election.
And his supporters?
Well, they pretty much want to see the world burn.
A Final Note
Keep in mind that while the United States military, and it’s allies are in-love with big, costly and expensive military equipment, they require maintenance to work properly. They require skilled people to use, maintain, and operate.
People need more than just training. They need understanding of the full complexities of the systems that they are in charge of.
In the Western publications we often see successful test firings of missiles, and elaborate presentations at air shows, but anyone who actually works… hands-on… in the development of these systems (such as myself) can tell you, that for every successful firing, display or utilization of a system, are comparatively ten failures.
When you field these systems, you had best have well-educated, skilled people trained in their use. They must have above-average intelligence and able to react to changes in a very contentious, high stress environment. An environment where all normal means of operation, supply and communications are compromised. Having crew on Naval Vessels that got there by diversity scoring, waivers, and who are unable to pass the most basic physical fitness standards is a lethal decision during a hot war.
What is not shown to “Joe and Suzy Q Public”…
Do not be so sure that everything will work as perfectly as it seems on paper. It’s been my experience that things tend to go to Hell very, very quickly in dangers and contentious environments.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Trump Trade War Index here…
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Do not believe what the media says. It’s all lies.
Do not believe what you think they are trying to cover up either. Many people have been tricked into this “tar baby”, and just end up propagating the alternative mantras.
Look at the few “raw” facts…
Donald Trump was in the hospital for three days and then was miraculously “cured”. Ok. I know it’s all fucked up, and sounds like a political stunt in a very partisan election year. But… could it have been something else instead…?
Think about it.
What happened when he went to the hospital?
Oh, you know, the “normal” precautions. Suddenly America went DEFCON ONE. Airborne command centers were engaged and all military ICBM silos were manned and the VP and other leadership were shuffled away to secret and secure hardened facilities. Airborne command posts were fully manned and the entire nation was put on the highest alert.
Then, after three days everything went back to normal.
…
So…
…
Odd.
…
To me, as former ONI – MAJ, this appears to me as a…
… staged precaution…
…or…
… clear “dry-run” practice…
…for the “unthinkable”.
And when I say “unthinkable”, I mean exactly that. A launch of a rather nasty nuclear war.
If you all do not realize why I think like this then check out my post about what America has been up to for the last four years, here.
Strange? You betya!
What’s even stranger is the timing of this “sickness”, and the instigation of DEFCON ONE in America.
It happened at the same time when the Chinese military discovered COVID-20 hitting the population centers of China.
Imagine that!
SADS-CoV
More lethal. More contagious. Of a completely different strain than COVID-19, and both "novel" and "never before seen" viral pathogens. Only instead of your lungs filling up with fluid, and crystallizing so that they feel like cement, you die by vomiting to death. (You can also shit your self to death as well. You end up with chronic and painful gastrointestinal diarrhea.)
Both this and the COVID-19 coronavirus are both wildly contagious and you can get it from touching a surface that someone touched days or even weeks ago. Another interesting thing about it (and all the bio-weapons launched against China since 2016) is the enormous size of the virus. It's a honker, big monster.
The Facts
Americans never have any “facts”.
At best, it’s distortions and partial truths.
The American media is owned and run by the United States government. Not only do they control the mainstream media and all “fact checking” of it. But they also control the alternative media as well. They control both the alt-right and the alt-left media.
You will NEVER see real “news” any longer.
All you will see are one of perhaps three major narratives. All which are designed to move you for thinking things or thoughts that run counter to what you are supposed to think. Which is why you WILL NEVER SEE ANYTHING LIKE THIS POSTED ON THE REST OF THE INTERNET.
Only here, on MM were you able to get any of the following “firsts” first, in “real time”…
COVID-19 is an American bio-weapon. The eighth in four years.
COVID-20 secured by China on October 2020 by the PLA.
The big picture about the HK, Thailand, and the Beirut missile attack.
Just here.
Only HERE.
…
And additionally to that…
Not only are you all kept stupefied and ignorant of what is going on through drugs, distractions and economic suppression. The government completely covers up the true and real activities as they happen in real time.
You will never realize what is going on or happening until long after the events occur. If ever. And the reason for this is that in a "democracy" run by public opinion, the opinions and thoughts of the citizens get in the way of what the government is trying to achieve. For good or worse.
This reminds me of some horrific movies.
It does.
Not that the movies depicted cover ups. After all, what kind of a movie would it be if you couldn’t have all the excitement of action and adventure…?
But it did remind me of those 1980’s movies that were trying to warn people that nuclear war was a terrible, terrible thing and that you just cannot assume that it will never happen.
Thoughts that somehow have been forgotten over the years. Instead a new, fresh crop of bright-eyed American neocons have approached the stage. And they, along with their psychopath President are playing with nuclear war, and military action like five year olds with firecrackers.
People! If you keep this bio-weapon nonsense up, you are going to see the combined forces of Asia Bitch-slap the United States into the pre-stone-age.
Only this time, there are no adults to supervise…
Washington has declared war on China. The administration and its allies hope that the war will be “cold,” but have no strategy for keeping it so. I find it noteworthy that the most belligerently anti-Chinese members of the current U.S. Senate are also its youngest.
They came to adulthood after the end of the post-World War II “Cold War” and have no experience of its anxieties. They appear to take its sudden end as predestined – something that was so inevitably right ideologically that it can and should be taken for granted. Their military experience, if any, has been in the contemporary equivalent of the 19th century’s Indian Wars – combat with gun-toting farmers with no air forces, air defenses, navies, guided missiles, or nuclear weapons with which to answer U.S. hostility.
To paraphrase Hilaire Belloc’s riff on Britain’s hubris in its colonial wars:
“Whatever happens, we have got
Close air support and they have not.”
The Cold War was radically different from this. It was a global struggle between two competing ideological blocs and nuclear-armed power centers capable of destroying not just each other but all life on the planet except maybe the cockroaches. It began as a series of squabbles over the spoils of a worldwide war. Each side strove to consolidate spheres of politico-military and economic influence and deny the other access to them.
But each learned to avoid confrontations that might lead to armed combat directly with the other.
Each limited itself to proxy wars aimed at sustaining or imposing its ideology somewhere not in the grip of the other.
Each sought to minimize and contain interaction with the other. That was not difficult, given the utter lack of interdependence between the two and the blocs of nations they formally and informally commanded.
The struggle we Americans have now initiated with China has none of these characteristics. To analogize it to the Cold War of 1947 – 1991 is intellectually lazy.
More important, it is profoundly misleading and delusional. The Sino-American split is not the sequel to a bloody world war.
However politically convenient it may be for Americans to cast antagonism to China in all-encompassing Manichean terms, this is a contest born of contending national self-images and ambitions, not ideologies.
The struggle with China on which Americans have embarked is a bilateral contest in which others may or may not choose to take sides, not one between two committed blocs of nations.
China is both a much less inherently hostile and far more robust rival than the Soviet Union was.
The Movie “By Dawn’s Early Light”
Fear of a global thermonuclear war was very real in the 1980s. At the height of the cold war the Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at the US and NATO countries and we had just as many aimed at Russia and Warsaw Pact countries too.
What people feared was that some minor conflict between the US and the USSR would spiral out of control and we’d fire our missiles at them and they at us which would essentially send what was left of mankind back to the stone age. Movies like The Day After (1983), Threads (1984) and Testament (1983) explored life post nuke war and the picture they painted weren’t nice ones.
But after the Soviet Union began to collapse and the cold war started to wind down in the late 1980s and early 90s fear of a nuclear war between “us and them” began to diminish. Surely with the United States and the Soviet Union on good terms a nuclear war would be out of the question. Right?
The main crux of the movie By Dawn’s Early Light (1990) was that no, in fact the possibility of a nuclear war was actually GREATER now that controls over these weapons were slowly being relaxed in the Soviet Union.
In By Dawn’s Early Light, separatists steal a missile from Russia and fire it back into the country from Turkey making it seem like that NATO was at fault. And an automatic Russian defense program fired off a few nukes of their own towards the US in retaliation for this strike.
What follows are the President of the US and the Russian Premier trying to deescalate the crisis, even as Washington DC is nuked, the President presumed killed and the Secretary of the Interior, the highest surviving member of the government left alive, takes the reigns of the country. ..
And if the real President who is still alive wants to stop the war, the first question the new Secretary of the Interior President asks the military commanders is if we’re winning the war or losing it?
Are we winning the war, or losing it?
The other side of By Dawn’s Early Light is of the crew of a B-52 bomber on the way to deliver their payload of nukes to Russia, and them debating the merits of killing millions upon millions of people for a war that shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
Eventually (spoiler alert) they turn their bomber around and head back home which causes the Russians to turn some of their bombers around too. And while the real President and the Premier see this as their chance to stop the war, the Secretary of the Interior President sees it as a sign of weakness and orders the B-52 shot down.
The American Air Force B-52 bomber crew is being told by the Navy Fighter Pilots that they have orders to shoot them down.
I originally saw By Dawn’s Early Light when it premiered on HBO and bought the VHS of the film when that came out a few years later. But honestly I hadn’t checked out the film in many years. While the special effects of the movie do look a bit dated, I did find that even 20+ years on the tension of By Dawn’s Early Light slowly builds and is maintained throughout the film right up until the very end.
I still found myself tensing up as the crew of the B-52 slowly comes to the realization that tonight’s flight isn’t a drill or the real President debating the Secretary of the Interior President on why it’s not a good idea to continue a war where every time one side fires a shot tens of thousands of civilians die.
While we’re probably not facing a situation like By Dawn’s Early Light in our immediate future, we still live in a world where there are thousands of nukes here in the US and thousands more overseas. And all it takes is one of those falling into the wrong hands to ruin everyone’s day.
So…
What the fuck is the matter with these neocon war-hawks in Washington DC? What is their friggin’ malfunction?
Neocons run America today.
While I genuinely believe that Trump would much rather work with both Russia, China and other nations of the multipolar alliance in lieu of blowing up the world, these aforementioned neocons think otherwise evidenced by Pompeo’s October 6 speech in Japan.
In this speech, Pompeo attempted to rally other Pacific nations to an anti-Chinese security complex known as the Quad (USA, Australia, Japan and India). With his typically self-righteous tone, Pompeo stated that “this is not a rivalry between the United States and China. This is for the soul of the world”. Earlier Pompeo stated “If the free world doesn’t change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”
Pompeo’s efforts to break China’s neighbours away from the Belt and Road Initiative have accelerated relentlessly in recent months, with territorial tensions between China and Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei being used by the USA to enflame conflict whenever possible.
It is no secret that the USA has many financial and military tentacles stretching deep into all of those Pacific nations listed.
Where resistance to this anti-China tension is found, CIA-funded “democracy movements” have been used as in the current case of Thailand, or outright threats and sanctions as in the case of Cambodia where over 24 Chinese companies have been sanctioned for the crime of building infrastructure in a nation which the USA wishes to control.
Pompeo’s delusional efforts to consolidate a Pacific Military bloc among the QUAD states floundered fairly quickly as no joint military agreement was generated creating no foundation upon which a larger alliance could be built.
-Win-Win vs Lose-Lose: The Time Has Come for the World to Choose
The world is on dangerous territory, and the idiots in Washington DC (and they are idiots for even considering the use of WMD’s in all their forms) are going to plunge the world into a darkness that I am truly fearful of.
If you can, watch the 1984 movie titled “Threads”. Learn about which I speak.
The Movie “Threads (1984)”
This is perhaps one of the most masochistic films ever made. You are taken into the personal world of two British families in Sheffield (site of a major NATO installation), who have children that are about to be married. Thousands of miles away, World War 3 slowly starts, and the ultimate horror happens. Thermonuclear war breaks out.
First shown by the BBC on 23 September 1984, Threads was must-watch TV. Accompanied by documentary On The Eighth Day and followed by a lengthy discussion on Newsnight, it’s a grim and unflinching depiction of what would happen to Britain if the unthinkable happened – if a political conflict between the US and Russia were to escalate into full-blown nuclear war.
An uncompromising reportage-style drama, Threads was the first film to realistically depict the horrors of a nuclear winter. Shocking, harrowing and hard to watch, it nonetheless made an important contribution to an increasingly urgent debate about the world’s ever-growing nuclear stockpile.
Threads focuses on two families linked by an unplanned pregnancy. Manual worker Jimmy Kemp (Reece Dinsdale) and middle class Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) must face the fact that they are having a baby, and that their old way of life will soon be over. Their concerns are those of any new parents: hopes and fears for their child, building a home together, saying goodbye to the Friday night pint at the pub. We also follow local government chief Clive Sutton (Harry Beety) as he struggles to put emergency plans into place amidst the growing likelihood of war. It soon becomes very clear that the city is woefully underprepared for a crisis of any kind, but in that very British way Sutton and his officials carry on regardless – unaware that, in the face of the storm to come, all preparations are ultimately futile.
I think it would be useless to repeat all that the other users have said about "Threads" since I cannot do better but agree with everything. This has to be THE most graphic representation of nuclear war.
And I used to think "The Day After" was disturbing.
I was able to cope to the whole movie, but let's say it wasn't easy at all. I can still hear in my head the yells of the panicked citizens as the mushroom cloud rises in the distance when it hits Crewe…
or see the bottles of milk…
or the corpse (which bears a striking resemblance with E.T.!) burning in the firestorm…
or see survivors keeping as gold what is taken nowadays as granted: supermarket plastic bags…
...and what they put inside is simply disgusting.
When I found out my local video store had a copy of this film, I rushed to get it, as I was impatient to see this movie I have heard so much about. The impatience to see the movie was rewarded by nothing more than a really bad aftertaste of radioactive fallout.
I liked the movie not for the quality of the actors, but for the overall realistic representation of the holocaust and for the great job done with a small budget. I give a thumbs up to that.
-airodyssey26 June 2000
Nuclear war is NOTHING to take lightly.
The world, literally, grinds to a halt, in one of the most scientifically accurate depictions of nuclear war since “War Game, The” (1965).
Framing this drama are news reports about growing political tension around the world. We learn piecemeal, through snippets of television reports and glimpsed newspaper headlines, that in recent months a coup in Iran has been followed by a Soviet occupation.
Having just purchased this on DVD I was eager to watch it after waiting years to see it after it was unofficially banned from ever being shown on the BBC again. I was four when it was first shown and my parents switched it off, too frightened to watch it themselves never mind let me see it.
I have to say it is absolutely terrifying and utterly terrifying in the extreme.
This could have actually happened!
I was impressed by the way the film conveyed what it would be like if thousands of megatons of atomic bomb was dropped on the U.K.
Normal life comes to an abrupt stop.
One minute people are shopping in their local supermarket, going to the pub and wallpapering their new flat and suddenly they are plunged into Hell.
Civilization is blown back into the stone age.
The most scary part was the way the authorities were shown unable to cope with the scale of the attack (perhaps why the BBC never aired it again). We always think that it could never be that bad because someone would come to our rescue, someone would maintain control.
But no, the bombs / missiles keep raining down and down prompting one traumatized emergency committee member to scream, "not another one!"
They just did not expect so devastation and are completely helpless. Later soldiers shoot people for food, people wish for death and the emergency committee, those meant to be running things, die in the supposed protective bunker, trapped by rubble.
Ten years later, nothing is back to normal. What young people there are behave like wild animals, raping and fighting and speaking in a bizarre caveman manner.
Since the Cold War ended people have stopped being frightened of nuclear weapons. Everybody in every country should watch this film and realize that if there ever was a nuclear war, still possible with growing tensions between a superpower and its rivals, those left alive would wish they had been caught in the blasts and killed outright.
I don't recommend this for sensitive viewers.
-charlieboy809 September 2005
Unlike the US film “Day After, The” (1983) (TV), the film gives detailed information as to what is happening on a scientific basis. You are shown how a worst-case scenario can happen, and what the effects are, as you follow the surviving members of the two families through the aftermath.
I've always said that no film can really scare you as an adult as films scared you when you were a kid. My benchmark for that being watching 'The Omen' on video when i was about 13, nothing has ever quite lived up to it in the effect it had on me.
Rewatching 'Threads' a while back makes me change my mind.
I remember first seeing it in Ireland on the BBC when I guess i was about 14. Even in Ireland, a neutral country, anxiety about nuclear war was a big thing when we were kids in the 80's.
'Threads' does really get to you, its very unsettling and disturbing. Unlike fictional horror films, 'Threads' is hugely different in one respect - it's real.
This is what would happen, you can't distance yourself by saying it's make believe. There are still thousands of nuclear weapons armed and primed to be launched within minutes, 24 hours a day, everyday. Now we even have a country, the US, that says it's ready to use them, even if no one else does first.
Rewatching it, the dated production values don't detract from the film's power. It seems to bring the film even closer to the ordinary and the everyday. It's the film's ordinariness that makes it so viscerally disturbing - Hollywood special effects would at least have allowed you to distance yourself from it somewhat.
In fact the film is more realistic for not having them. Someone else mentioned the scene of the woman in the shopping center urinating where she stood out of pure terror as she sees the bomb go off a mile or two away from her - that's the scene that stayed with me the most too.
Its depressing to think in 2004 we are living in a world where politicians are again talking about 'winnable' wars using nuclear weapons.
In many things in life you get a second chance if you make mistakes, I don't think nuclear weapons use will give us the luxury of finding out afterwards was it all worth it. Watch "Threads' and see if you think 'winnable' nuclear war is something you want to give yourself or your children.
-BenjAii7 December 2004
What follows is a complex sequence of small scale political escalations, events that are alluded to but never fully or coherently explained. By themselves, none of the steps towards conflict seem irreversible, but together they constitute a crisis.
All this occurs firmly in the background of the characters’ lives, and is largely ignored: TV reports are turned over to something more interesting, newspapers are delivered without headlines being read. It’s only as the crisis deepens that people start to pay attention.
The early 80s were the first time in a generation that full scale nuclear war seemed not only possible but probable.
It’s hard to imagine now, nearly thirty years after its demolition, but in 1984 the Berlin Wall was a very solid and enduring dividing line between two opposing world powers: the countries of NATO, including the US and Britain on one hand, and those united by the Soviet-sponsored Warsaw Pact on the other. Europe was very much at the center of these international tensions, and those old enough to remember the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis just over twenty years earlier knew that political conflict could escalate quickly and unpredictably.
Capable of being launched in minutes, and with a time-to-target of between 4 and 6 minutes, the US’s Pershing II missiles had hard target capability – meaning they could take out weapons silos and command bunkers buried deep below ground.
Both sides knew that a massive and all-encompassing preemptive strike was the only way to win a nuclear war. The stakes were incredibly high. Indecision or delay – of even a few minutes – could mean the difference between survival and total annihilation.
I was about eleven or twelve when this harrowing made-for-TV docu-drama was repeated by the BBC, back to back with 'The War Game'. 'The War Game' didn't faze me much, for various reasons, but 'Threads' - that grabbed me instantly and wouldn't let go.
It was not only horribly real, seeing a lower-middle class family rather like my own suddenly plunged back into the dark ages by a nuclear holocaust, it was also entirely believable (the cold war was still very much an ongoing concern back in the eighties) and shockingly compelling.
I wanted to look away, but couldn't.
I wanted to run from the room in fright, but couldn't.
For better or worse, this film showed in full, unflinching, uncompromising detail exactly what it would be like if your home town got nuked, and gave us graphic realism in spades.
Melting milk-bottles, spontaneous urination, houses reduced to rubble in seconds, burning cats, dead kids, gore, vomit, armed traffic wardens shooting looters, filth, decay, disease…it's certainly not a barrel of laughs, but Mick Jackson's aim was to shut up all the ignorant gung-hos who believed a nuclear war could be "won".
He succeeded, unequivocally. The scene that made the deepest impact on me was the ravaged makeshift classroom with a ragged bunch of shell-shocked adults dazedly watching an ancient videotape of a schools programme (Words and Pictures, in fact) in an attempt to regain their numeracy and literacy skills.
That was a show we used to watch at school. Work it out for yourself. In short, this is a downbeat, depressing, bleak and utterly horrible film, but I recommend it wholeheartedly to everyone. The cold war may be gone, but the threats portrayed are still very real.
-world_of_weird16 September 2004
People had become used to the jargon that surrounded the debate about a nuclear future – IBMs, kilotons, radiation sickness, fallout – but what did the words really mean? What would a nuclear war actually look like? Few in Britain at the time had any idea. Threads would change all that.
If the film was going to be a useful contribution to the nuclear debate, it needed to incorporate the latest scientific thinking and research, and an impressive number of physicists, psychologists and other scientists and theoreticians were consulted during production, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Joseph Rotblat and cosmologist Carl Sagan (who had also conducted experimental research on radiation in the 60s).
But Threads was not just about presenting research; if it was to be effective as a drama it needed a suitable story on which to hang the science. Jackson turned to a dramatist known for his naturalistic portrayals of ordinary British life, Barry Hines.
Hopelessness and helplessness pervade the script. The growing nuclear threat becomes just one more pressure on a society already dealing with high unemployment and degradation of local services. Public protest about the two inevitably become conflated: anxiety about a future of nuclear destruction is interwoven with anxiety for a future without jobs. At the root of both is a fear of society’s impending collapse.
The scenes of death, destruction and disease are so realistic, I had to shower after seeing this film for the first time.
But what is most disturbing is that the film includes the long-term effects of global thermonuclear war, going into weeks, months, years, even decades.
!3 years afterwards.
Words can't describe how this movie affected me in 1985, but I'll try. I happened upon a presentation of "Threads" when I was about 11 years old. As a Navy family, we were stationed in Washington D.C. After viewing it, I was frightened to the point of vomiting. I had nightmares for weeks. The world was a very unstable place at the time with a Soviet government that seemed to change monthly.
The cast does an admirable job here. Dialog is kept to a damaging minimum. There is no soundtrack other than screams of misery and explosions. Very effective. While you can't compare a TV production, there is effective use of stock footage. The interspersed scientific facts regarding the aftermath punctuate the film brilliantly.
While other films about the same topic, like "The Day After" and Testament", were reasonably effective in their messages, I think they failed where "Threads" succeeded. In the aforementioned films, there's a glimmer of hope.
In "Threads" there is no hope, only death, misery and dread.
I believe I saw "Threads" before the TV broadcast of "The Day After" because my reaction was one of slight indifference. After seeing Mick Jackson's and Barry Hines' work, "The Day After" is like a day at Disneyland. No film portrays the world on the brink and over the edge as effectively. Highly recommended.
-huladog557 November 2005
When the unimaginable does happen, Threads becomes something else…
Shocking images blend the mundane with the horrifying: milk bottles melting in the firestorm, bodies burning to ash in the rubble. Nothing is left untouched or undefiled by radiation. Life returns to subsistence levels as nuclear winter settles over the UK. Sickness, starvation and death become inescapable. Survivors hoard bits and pieces of broken objects – all that remains of life before the blast – in dirty plastic carrier bags. A scavenged dead rabbit becomes an unimaginable feast.
The film holds no-one responsible for all this except, perhaps, those at the very top of the chain. It calmly sets out the steps to war, with local officials no more to blame for the chaos than those left dazed and destitute once the firestorm has passed. Ultimately, all preparations to survive are futile, a child’s toy windmill in the path of a hurricane.
It’s the visual images that stay with you: a sudden splash of crimson blood against a grey wall when all before was colorless; children laboriously unpicking precious scraps of fabric one strand at a time; the pristine black silhouette of an undamaged marble tomb – as if death is the only thing in the world that has retained its sharp outline.
All this is delivered to us with a coolness, a deadpan detachment that is sickeningly unsettling. As time passes, characters simply disappear from the story – and we are left to imagine what has happened to them. It’s in the most offhand way that we discover the fates of those in the command center under Town Hall.
The film holds no-one responsible for all this except, perhaps, those at the very top of the chain. It calmly sets out the steps to war, with local officials no more to blame for the chaos than those left dazed and destitute once the firestorm has passed. Ultimately, all preparations to survive are futile, a child’s toy windmill in the path of a hurricane.
The film ends thirteen years after the nuclear attack, and the final frames of the film will burn into you like no other film ever will. There can be no question that this film MUST be re-released in the USA on DVD, so that it’s message will be heard and felt.
My boyfriend had been dogging me for months to watch this movie, which he (erroneously, I think) described as sci-fi. Now, I've never been a fan of sci-fi movies, as I think most of them are over-done, corny, etc. Add to that the fact that the movie was made 23 years ago, and I pretty much decided it wasn't going to be my cup of celluloid tea.
Was I ever wrong. Not only was it the singular most horrifying movie I've ever watched, it's timely as hell, and it's done documentary-style, so there aren't any overblown emotional scenes to detract from its realism. This movie scared me on such a profound level that I actually felt like I was having a panic attack and had to shut it off halfway through, during the "hospital" scene.
Mind you, I've never in my entire life been so disturbed by a movie that I just couldn't watch anymore. I sobbed, hard, for a good 15 minutes and couldn't sleep for most of that night. I have yet to finish the second half.
That said, I can't recommend it to the faint-of-heart. It will hit you on such a visceral level that everything in your reality will seem a little duller and less important after having watched it. I'm still amazed at how the events outlined in this movie are as much a threat to us now as they were in 1984. Twenty-three years later, we are no further from preventing a nuclear holocaust. If anything, the threat is more imminent.
If you can stomach it, you won't regret it.
-brrrnor18 February 2008
In 2020, it feels as if those safer times are ending. This is an important film that has become more, not less, relevant since it was first released.
It’s still one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever watched. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it truly is something everyone should watch.
Not yet convinced?
The United States is run by psychopaths that think that they have been given powers by God, and that they are invincible. They have followers that believe this as well, and they are all in charge of a massive nuclear arsenal and they are running around the world stirring up trouble galore.
Nothing good is ever going to come of this.
It will not be a scene from “The walking dead”. It will be something else. If you live, you might have to wait thirty years before you will see taste pizza again. If might never, ever be able to drive a car ever again, and forget about checking out your Facebook page, or attending any kind of university. It’s all over.
It’s game over.
Forever, and your life will be forever changed.
If you earnestly believe that Donald Trump and company will usher in a better world for you and your fellow Americans, you are delusional. He has been one wrecking-ball after the other, and aside from plunging the entire globe into a global recession, he unleashed a global pandemic and is RIGHT NOW toying with the idea of launching nuclear weapons.
Nothing . good . will . come . of . this.
Reality Check
Most Americans are unaware of the true realities involved. In fact, media in America is a mountain-sized discharge of manipulation and nonsense to give the illusion of understanding and objectivity. While it is none of the sort.
An attack on China is a de faco attack on Russia. Both military have officers stationed in their respective military headquarters.
Any attack on China will NOT be limited to a distant South China Sea. They will retaliate. They will make it personal. America will never be the same afterwards. If you think that America is falling apart at the seams now, can you imagine what would happen with the top 20 cites in smoldering run, zero internet, radio or television, and where every other person has a gun…
…
Think about it.
Look at what is going on now. Look at the “hybrid-war” with China. Only four short years ago, China had our “most favored trading partner status”. And what is not said, and what you just cannot find in the alternative media…
Eight American initiated biological weapons attacks on Chinese food supplies and livestock. Followed by the release of COVID-19 on the most important holiday in China, CNY 2020. It didn't work, so the USA sent a flotilla of two assault carrier groups and five nuclear carriers to the South China Sea...
...which returned with "their tail between their legs" when the directed energy weapons ringing China turned off all the electronics, sensors, engines, and systems on the Naval vessels and aircraft. Planes started to fall out of the sky. Ships became uncontrollable. Nuclear reactors started to scram.
And yet...
After all this. COVID-20 is launched inside of China. At the same time that President Trump gets "sick" and goes into "hiding" and America goes DEFCON ONE.
Russia out-numbers the USA in nuclear weapons, and China is substantially superior to the United States in key strategic military technology (like hyper-velocity weapons, directed energy beams, drone hardware, swarm drones, and captive munitions).
But if you tell these neocons any of this, they shout you down with…
“America is number one”
“God is on our side”.
“America has never lost a war!”
“You are delusional, America is the best!”
And so on and so forth.
The neocons have co-opted the American patriotic conservative movement arguing that blowing up people, places and things are signs of American greatness.
.
Ah…
Still not convinced that these neocon “patriots” don’t believe that a nuclear war is “winnable”…
In addition to a nuclear first strike, the United States and her allies have a decided advantage of quick strike, long range battlefield capabilities because of superior aircraft and carrier strike capabilities. The Chinese have developed and are close to making operation, carrier-busting weapons platforms. A major advantage enjoyed by the US is about to be totally negated by an advancement in Chinese technology.
-Can America Win World War III? A Critical Analysis | The ...
Yes, you read that correctly.
America needs to strike FIRST, using nuclear weapons because both China and Russia have well-organized defensive weapons.
Crazy, eh?
Well, they seem to temper their enthusiasm for war with some caution…
The downside of a nuclear first strike by the United States would be that the US would also take a significant beating as Russian and probable Chinese and Indian nuclear forces would have time to retaliate.
However, the US submarines could do much of the damage, because of geographical proximity, before our enemies could get many of their missiles off the launching pads. If the deep space platform missiles were successful along with the “Rods from God” in targeting Russian and Chinese nuclear submarines, the United States could win a decisive victory.
With regard to the “Rods from God”, does anyone think that the recent destruction of the four chemical plants in China was truly an accident?
-Can America Win World War III? A Critical Analysis | The ...
So…
It’s pretty much all there in black and white.
Conclusion
An odd thing happened in October 2020. The President, Donald Trump was carted off to a hospital for three days and the United States went DEFCON ONE. Then things returned back to normal.
The excuse was that he was sick. That he had the COVID-19. But that he was cured miraculously, and is now feeling better than ever. His die-hard fans and believers are pretty much spit between…
It’s a sign from God that he is the messiah.
See, COVID-19 is not as bad as the flu.
It doesn’t matter what “everyone thinks”. I am not in Middle School, nor am I a member of the American sheeple. I just do not care what everyone else thinks.
COVID-20 (SADS-CoV) was launched, and discovered inside of China by the PLA at the same time that Donald Trump went "into the hospital" and DEFCONE ONE was initiated in America.
I know that all the evidence is pointing to an out-of-control leadership that is implementing long term strategies that require the use of nuclear weapons to achieve.
Trump followers have a near-religious belief in his ability and purpose.
And while it is clear that the Overseers will not permit radical changes to the Earth environment, they will permit a wide degree of latitude in how the PTB and their oligarchy-run governments operate. You can well expect things to get dicey.
Now, I am NOT saying that it will happen. Instead, what I am saying is that all the evidence points to plans within plans that involve this exact kind of human-generated calamity. And absolutely no-one is considering or what is aware of what is actually going on.
Were I to be one of the merit-driven leaders in Russia or China, I would instigate a pre-emptive first strike to prevent a belligerent United States, run by religious fundamentalist psychopaths, from destroying the rest of the world in their zeal for a utopia where Jesus comes down from heaven to purify the universe.
Either way, it’s a sick mess.
Be aware, but be safe.
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Ambassador Fox:Your refusal to comply with my orders has endangered the entire success of this mission. I can have you sent to a penal colony for this.Mr Scott:That you can, sir, but I won’t lower the screens.Ambassador Fox:Your name will figure prominently in my report to the Federation Central.Doctor McCoy:Well, Scotty, now you’ve done it.Mr. Scott:Aye. The haggis is in the fire for sure, but I’ll not lower my defenses on the word of that mealy-mouthed gentleman down below. Not until I know what happened to the Captain.
-Star Trek, A Taste of Armageddon 1967
This is not your red vs. blue kind of conflict. This is not the SA fighting the SS. This is not the Northern “Boys in Blue” marching against “Johnny Reb” in grey. This is not the glorious Allied forces fighting the evil Nazi’s. This is something different and on a completely different level.
I anticipate the normal horrors of war, and mayhem. But only this time it will be up front, up close, and right in your face. It will be like the hand to hand, street to street conflicts going on in the Bosnia / Hertivogania conflict. Only this time, it will include all sorts of unexpected and dangerous “innovations”.
And for all of you who think that you and your trusty .303 will be able to fight back against under-educated hordes, you are woefully wrong. Both sides have no idea just how nasty things can be. And both sides are going to spill a lot of blood, and there will be great sadness and agony in the process. All the time, the oligarchy will sit away smug inside their bunkers isolated from the carnage that they set upon the world.
The following is an interesting article. Some military-trained conservatives decided to visit an Antifa riot, and they were wholly unprepared for what they encountered. It’s a good read whether or not you agree with their intent, or their politics. Just take note that war is never what you expect.
The smart man avoids war, and runs away from conflict.
The following article is titled “Antifa Reality Check”. It was posted by NC Scout on September 5, 2020. It is reproduced with minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
“Very basic background. My friend is a prior service 1st LAR 0311, 0351. (from Wiki: 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion is a fast and mobilized armoredterrestrial reconnaissance battalion of the United States Marine Corps.) Multiple tours in the early to late 2000s, then DoE, then was put through selection and went to work for Colonel G____ as a team member. Since leaving, he has been doing contract work.
He is an experienced and capable meat eater and the furthest thing from a pussy or coward. Try to learn from his experiences.
“Me and three of my buddies were in Portland this weekend, got attacked by Antifa. There’s a Twitter video with millions of views on it. They ended up on Hannity and Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro etc., of us getting beaten with bats and rocks the size of cantaloupes thrown at us, getting spit on etc. We were all carrying pistols as well. Opportunity, ability and jeopardy, we were in a deadly force situation and we could easily articulate the use of deadly force, but they had pepper sprayed us. They were using industrial strobe lights on us, etc. We couldn’t PID our target and what lied beyond it, They did a great job of taking our situational awareness away, it was fucking incredible.
Bro my perspective on this changed so much.
The reason we were there wasn’t to counter protest or some shit, **** and *****, two of the guys with me, one of which is a bronze star and Purple Heart recipient. They’re both in the hiring process for the Portland Police Department. One is from Ohio and one is from Virginia. They both flew in that day just so they could come check out the city before they move their families across the nation.
Something else that I should make perfectly clear. We went to the Federal Courthouse first. There wasn’t a whole lot going on down there. We walked around and took some pictures. Bumped into a Sheriff at one point. Talked to him for a while. We asked him if the riots were over? He said fuck no, they’re trying to fuck a police station up right now on 47th and Burnside, We asked him if we could go, and he said yeah, it’s still a peaceful assembly, it hasn’t been declared a riot yet….
So, legit, we walked into this thing blind, in hindsight it was stupid on our part, I had no idea that they were like that. If it had been a full-blown riot we would not have gone. Bottom line, man, if you had ever given me a scenario like this and said hey, you’re sober, and you have a gun, and somebody is hitting you with a bat and throwing rocks at you that could kill you or put you in a coma, you try to get away but they cut you off with a convoy of vehicles and the assault starts again. They impede your movement and beat you with bats… Would you shoot?
I’d be like, yeah what fucking planet are you from?
But in all the training that I’ve been through my life, I’ve never been in one where in the first five seconds of the scenario you’re blinded with a strobe light and sprayed with pepper spray…. That changes everything. They were throwing these rocks from 15 feet back in the crowd, you couldn’t see who the fuck through it, etc. things like that…. It’s just a good talking point for guys that carry concealed, but you need to think through all these different scenarios.
It got way worse after that video ended, they chased us for 11 city blocks. They had a convoy of about 25 vehicles that cut us off at the next intersection, They had scouts on the corner with radios, they had a drone following us, they had a bull horn calling us Nazis, and the crowd was following a red strobe light that was up in the air on a stick, so they would announce Nazis and then people would follow the red strobe light, That video is just the beginning, I’ve got a fucking fractured hand from a baton, everyone of us has black and blue bruises up and down their legs and back, I had a guy spit in my face from 6 inches away, call me a pussy and a coward for not doing anything about it, and then tell me that he was going to find where I live, rape my mother, rape my children in front of me and then kill me.
I’ve never been more angry about something in my fucking life, the level of restraint that it took for us to not fight back in any capacity whether that was with a gun or fists is incredible. All of us have kids at home. The only thing going through all of our minds was we have to be able to justify deadly force if we’re going to go that route, there’s also hundreds of these people, we can’t see straight because of all the pepper spray, and it’s hard to PID exactly who is throwing these rocks and hitting us with batons, because they would hit you and fucking run and their buddy would run up and hit you. It was an incredibly stressful situation, they did a very good job tactically of taking away your situational awareness, and in my opinion complicating your legal defense when you split one of their faces open with a hollow point.
As we were running from the crowd after about the third block or so, we’re sprinting because the mob head caught back up to us and vehicles were trying to cut us off, I put my hand on the back strap on my appendix, And I heard somebody yell “Hey bro, whatever you’re reaching for, don’t reach, just keep running, they’re still 30 feet behind you. Keep running straight.”
We get 11 blocks down the road and this black Chevy Impala is ghosting us down the street, he’s kind of been in our shadow since block two or three He rolls his window down and starts asking us a bunch of questions. Why are we here, what are we doing, telling us we need to get the fuck out of here, asking us where our car is etc., we pretty much told him to get the fuck away from us because we didn’t know who he was. I finally asked him at one point, Who the fuck are you, man, you need to leave us alone, and he was like I’m the fucking police, bro, who are you?
So he pulled his car over and he and his partner talked to us. He was one of the special programs guys, either with SWAT or SRT or whatever. He was the one that yelled at me not to reach, and tried to help us out. He said he knew that we’ve been pepper sprayed and we’re having trouble seeing, I kind of snapped at him, Like hey motherfucker, You’ve been watching this whole thing fucking unfold and you didn’t intervene at all or light the crowd up or something? He started laughing and he was like, Man, if I got out and tried to help you guys, my fucking car would be on fire right now, and I’d be running next to you.
Bottom line: don’t go to an Antifa protest where you can put yourself in that situation. And if you find yourself in that situation, expect them to employ tactics that take away your situational awareness, and complicate the use of force continuum.”
Conclusion
War is something that should be considered as an option of last resort. It doesn’t matter if you are two people having a disagreement, or two nations involved in some kind of trade dispute. All war is ugly, crazy and unexpected.
Here, we have well trained soldiers going against militant civilians on their turf. They entered equipped, and read to go “hot” if need be. They had to be arrogant, for they were moving into an environment that was hostile and they were not concerned. In my “book”, it makes them cocky.
When I see Donald Trump sending Two complete assault carrier battle groups to the Chinese coastline, so close that you could see everyone with your own eyes. And then, expecting to threaten China in that action, I see the same kind of cocky invincibility as is written here.
Real war is not a Tom Clancy novel, it is not Rambo or Arnold Schwarzenegger killing hundreds of people with single shots to the forehead. It’s actually very uncomfortable, very horrible, and something that you don’t want to have any part of.
Expect to be surprised, tricked, betrayed, and killed.
Right now the United States is in the opening stages of Civil War, and the fact that the President is doing nothing (and don’t give me those excuses that he is powerless) tells me everything that I need to know about who is behind this, and what the objectives are.
Any president that can ban cat videos on cell phones, arrest foreign CEO’s by proxy, unleash a global bio-weapon the COVID-19, and blow up BRI shipping ports with a micro-nuke most certainly…
…most certainly…
…stop all the riots and unrest going on in the country today.
So. Everyone. Avoid all the conflict. Do not be under the impression that you will be able to fight off invading urban youth marching and screaming into bullhorns. It won’t be that way. You all won’t be playing cowboys and Indians inside a wooden stockade fort.
It will be black urban youth hyped up on drugs with kill-lust in their eyes. They will ride into your neighborhoods in brand new vehicles and pickup trucks mounting full automatic weapons. They will use drones, and fly bombs, and firebomb your community. They will attack, while flanking units go behind you and kidnap your family. They will leave raw earth, fire and blacked destruction in their wake.
Learn the lessons listed here in.
If you haven’t already, relocate to a quiet and boring place where you can ride out the up coming shit storm.
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I haven’t done a happiness post in a while. Perhaps it’s high time that I dust off the old keyboard, slide all that nonsense and clutter off my desk, open up a window and let some fresh sunny air inside. With that being said, let’s spend a few minutes to talk about some good things; things that matter to me. And, by extension, maybe that matter to you as well. Eh?
These are just some thoughts that I have had. They are my thoughts, and I am sure that not everyone will agree with me. But you can skip the parts you don’t like or agree with. And nod to yourself silently in parts that you do like.
Deep Dark Cool Forests
One of the little pleasures that I have enjoyed are those special moments when I enter the deep dark woods.
As most of you might be aware, there are all kinds of forests. From light sparsely fielded birch groves, to dense pine growths, to scrub and spackle arrangements. Here we are talking about deep, thick and rich old-growth forests. Forests that are populated with century old hard-woods like cherry, maple, oak and mahogany. Forests with bark as thick as your hand and lush deep thick curtains of moss that cover everything.
You can breathe in the cool moistness with your nostrils and feel the fresh air in your lungs.
The cool deep dark forest.
When you walk into this environment it is like you are entering another world. It’s cooler. It’s dimmer, and the shade is complete. There might be a very few instances of light that might manage to pierce through the upper canopy, but not often. You might be able to hear a brook bubbling away, or a swish of some deer as they disappear in the distance.
On of my great pleasures is to walk and explore the dark recesses of a midnight dark forest.
It’s a treasured place, and a treasured time. As such, I would like to express my belief that if we do not take the time to go forth and visit these treasured places that we are missing out in one of the great joys of life.
Perhaps there is a national park nearby. If so, go there and take a trail that you have never walked before. You will not regret it.
Sunny mid-morning Spring days
As I write this, it is the start of May. Springtime. Just about the entire world is waking up, stretching their arms, and venturing outside.
One of the little pleasures (that I have) is the freshness and coolness of Spring air, most especially when it is associated with a very Sunny day. These are days where the windows are open in the house to let the fresh air in. Where the kids are out in the driveway hosing down and washing the car, and where people are talking about when the local pool will open up.
After I left the ADC once I was retired, everything was “good”. It was all good. And I vowed that I would appreciate life more, enjoy it more and treasure it more. Perhaps that is what many people need today. A lesson to appreciate what you have WHILE YOU HAVE IT.
This is also the time when Winter clothes are packed and stored away. The Winterizing for the house, the car, and just about everything else is set aside. It’s also when the first mowing of the lawn occurs, and if you have a pool, when the pool cover is removed, the leaves are gathered from the water, and you “shock the pool” into health.
Maybe you might even set some chairs out in the yard.
Nighttime on the beach
It’s quiet. All that you can hear is the surf beating up against the shore. The sky is black, and the sea is black, and the sand is dark grey. Yet, strangely once your eyes adjust, the whitecaps on the waves are this light blue color. It’s actually magical.
Nighttime on the beach.
It’s a time when you walk, and think. And if you are with a friend, you talk. The waves roll. The air is still with occasional light breezes, the palms sway. There is a pace of life. It is free of the electronic media that are are all tethered to. And that is a good thing.
Then once you return home you can turn on your social media. You can read or hear people literally screaming at you with the latest “issues” of the day. Trump is a Russian spy! China is evil, nasty and eats bats! Your rights are being stolen from you! We need to raise taxes! And on and on and on.
Go outside. Shut that nonsense off.
Warm laundry on an icy cold day
It doesn’t seem like much, but to me it’s special. It’s a time when you pull the clothes out of a dryer on a frigid Winter day. The clothes are warm, toasty and delicious. Meanwhile the house is cold, brisk and icy.
A delicious home-cooked hamburger and an icy beer
You didn’t think that I would ignore this special moment, did you? Nope. All praises to the home-made hamburger and the icy cold beer. Now, when I mean icy-cold, I actually do mean icy cold. In fact, I (myself) prefer a tall glass of ice, and then pour the beer in. That means, boys and girls, that I drink the beer at 32F or 0C. Frosty.
One of the delicious pleasures that I have is the home-made hamburger with a nice frosty beer. It’s what I enjoy, and I believe that everyone should try this combination at least once in their life.
Now a frosty mug is nice. But it is the temperature of the beer that makes this special. Not to mention a nice home made hamburger with tomatoes, cheese (glorious cheese!), lettuce, and bun. Oh, and if you were inspired, some nice slabs of bacon would really enhance the overall burger flavor, don’t you know.
Well?
What’s stopping you from doing this right now?
Fixing a busted car and having it roar back to life
Have you ever dealt with a broken piece of machinery? You sit in the car, you fire it up and …clunk! Nothing.
Gagh!
That car is very tired.
So then, after some screaming and moaning, you finally figure out what is wrong. You pull out your tools, and start to get to the heart of the matter. But, of course, nothing is easy to get to. You need to tear half the car apart to get to anything. Then, after hours of work, frozen and stuck nuts, icy wind blowing on your knees and your shit wet with water, oil, gasoline and grease, you finally are able to put the replacement part back in.
It’s a real joy to see an engine roar back to life once you fix a few problems. (Oh, and don’t you just love the 454, eh?) The 1970 LS6 454 cubic-inch V8 that was one of the best street muscle car motors ever produced. Broooom!
Making a pot of Chili
There is a certain joy in making a pot of chili. I really cannot enunciate why it is so special. Maybe it is because I would tend to cook chili on the weekends. Or maybe it’s the smell of the chili as it is cooking all afternoon.
A fine bowl of home-made chili.
Or maybe it’s sitting down afterwards watching a movie with the chili in one hand and an icy cold beer in the other. I really don’t know. What ever it is, it’s most certainly a wonderful and special noteworthy time.
I started to make chili when I lived outside “Poison Canyon” in Ridgecrest, California. One day the staff on the base had a “chili cook-off” on a non-base facility. All of us were asked to submit our creations. It was my first attempt at making chili and (yes) I made some mistakes. But then ever since, I kept at it and kept at it.
Now, when I make up a pot, it is my “comfort food”.
I like to eat it over rice. (Though some friends in Louisiana like to eat it over chips.) I know that sour cream is a nice addition, but I never seem to have any around. Instead I opt for lots and lots of yellow cheese (sharp cheddar) is my favorite and some hot peppers.
Oh, and don’t forget the icy cold beer.
Playing with your dog
There’s something about a little playful ritual that I have with my dog “Shao Pi”. You see, a couple of times a day I give him a “dog sausage”. It’s a kind of meat flavored rice filler in the shape of a sausage. It’s pretty darn cheap.
Chinese doggie sausages. You cut holes in the plastic skin and he sucks the liverwurst like meat out of the sausage.
What I do is cut the ends off and punch holes in it. Then I call him.
Now, my game is to pretend that I cannot see him or know where he is. I start looking for him all over the house and outside on the porch. He goes crazy trying to say “I’m here! I’m here!”.
I carry on like this for a few minutes. Eventually he “convinces” me that he’s there, and I hand the treat out to him.
Now, my wife tried this game.
The only thing is that she didn’t play the game. She just handed the sausage to him.
What he did was so funny. He sat on the floor. Looked at the sausage, and then up to her. As if to say “what? You don’t want to play with me? Did I do something wrong?” And then he slunk back to his sleeping bed and ignored the sausage.
LOL.
This time is a little pleasure I have. I guess that it sounds so silly to dog haters or cat lovers, but I swear it is a special time and something that adds meaning to my life.
An after-dinner cigar and a glass of whiskey
Ah. You can tell that I am a man growing old. But you know what? Yup this is a real pleasure of mine. There is something relaxing and soothing to have a fine meal, and then calm down afterwards with a fine cigar and a nice glass of whiskey.
An after dinner cigar and a glass of whiskey.
I must admit that I am not a connoisseur of cigars. Rather, I take what I can get. Though the Cuban cigars obtained locally are really nice. As far as whiskey goes, I know what bad and fake whiskey is, but my budget will not permit me to have any of those expensive brands that you see in magazines. So I make the best with what is within my budget.
It’s a pleasure of mine and something that you cannot do in any public restaurant in America today. But, it is something that I can do just about anywhere else in the world. It’s what’s called “freedom“.
Picking a ripe heirloom tomato off the vine
When I was growing up we had a little garden. I was the only one who really cared about it. I would tend to it, and weed it all Summer. I would also go ahead and plant tomatoes along with the other vegetables. My favorite plants were, of course, tomatoes. Though secondary favorites included green peppers and zucchini.
A fine tomato sandwich.
I tried to grow them up here in China. No such luck. Zhuhai is way, way too hot for the kinds of tomatoes that I know and love. I wrote a post about this HERE…
Anyways, back to my story.
Growing tomatoes is a real pleasure of mine. I especially like the tomato sandwich that I make from a freshly picked juicy “Big Boy” fresh off the vine. I just cut that sucker into many thin cuts. Layer the cuts one on top of the other. Add some salt and pepper, and slather some sweet mayonnaise (Miracle Whip) on top. Of course, I use plain white bread. It’s the perfect bread for this sandwich.
I just cannot imagine a Summer without a tomato sandwich.
And, of course, I always eat it over the sink while the sauce and the tomato dripping fall down. My hands get all messy, but I just rinse them off under the running water.
It’s a great Summer pleasure, I’ll tell you what.
You do not know what your true pleasures are until you cannot have them. The pleasure of a simple tomato sandwich was denied to me in the ADC.
Canoeing on a quiet lake alone
This is a pleasure that most people do not enjoy.
You buy or rent a canoe. You go to a remote area, and there, in the early morning, you paddle out into the lake while the morning mist is rising off the lake. If you get up really early, it’s still very dark out. Like maybe four int he morning.
Ron Swanson understands. This is from season 7, episode 13.
It’s quiet. The mist is like a fog and all you can hear are the frogs, the critters, and the sound of the swishing of the water.
Then you just paddle up and down the lake. Maybe find a quiet spot and fish. You pop a top (open up a can of beer), and drink it down. You don’t have a cellphone, or at least no signals. No one can contact you with an “emergency”. Your time. Your place. Your life.
It’s magical.
Soup in a thermos and a home made sandwich
Most people don’t give this any thought. But you all should. There’s something comforting in having a lunch prepared by loved ones for you instead of a McDonald’s #3 meal supersized with a coke.
A home-made meal is healthier, better, cheaper, and often more delicious than one made in a fast-food restaurant. It won’t make you fat, it will be balanced, and it will remind you of your connections to your loved ones. It’s a win-win.
A homemade packed sandwich goes a long way to keep the stomach rumblings down and subdue the ravenous beast inside.
The thermos might contain coffee, but more often than not it would be home made soup. My personal favorites are chicken-noodle, cream of broccoli, and vegetable beef. The sandwich would generally be some kind of “Dagwood” consisting of a few slabs of meat, some tomatoes, lettuce, onions and maybe s “thickener” like peanut butter or a fried egg. Topping it off would be a fruit. Maybe an apple or a banana. Sometimes an orange.
That’s what you get when you have a traditional family. One person works outside, the other person takes care of the domestic issues. They make sure that you eat well and healthy. They put care into that meal. They put love into that meal.
A thermos filled with home-made soup is a very special thing, and it reminds you that you are nothing without your family and their support.
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and it is very, very true.
Enjoy an ice cream Sundae
Ice cream is everywhere. Or at least, what we call ice cream, is everywhere. In the West, America I’m talking to you, most “ice cream” is actually a percentage of cream with milk and other fillers. It’s not really “real” and “pure” ice cream at all.
Which is really rather sad.
This little pleasure describes eating real, honest to goodness, ice cream at a dairy that gives you the real thing. And what’s more, you eat a Sundae using it.
A well done ice cream sundae would have multiple scoops of real ice cream, with all sorts of toppings added.
Now, some history first.
Back in the day, when families still attended churches, and would spend the Sundays together, a “Sundae” was a special treat. It was a time to go traipse off to the local dairy farm and eat or have some fresh ice cream. That was a big event back in the day. It’s so difficult to imagine what the big deal was, because seemingly ice cream is everywhere.
Heck you can get a “ice cream””Sundae” at McDonald’s, for goodness sakes. Which isn’t really a true “ice cream” nor a true “sundae”. It’s a tasty food-like product. Fine for kids, but really below standard for most adults.
Adults deserve real… REAL… ice cream.
In California, back in the 1980’s, ice cream parlors were making a comeback. Though, I have no idea what is going on today. When I was there, they were being displaced by the TCBY frozen yogurt franchises.
Oh, and by the way, any decent Sundae in the United States would be topped with an American flag, don’t ya know.
Here we are talking about paying the money and eating an enormous ice cream Sundae with your loved ones. We are not talking about some fake ‘soft serve” for a dollar at the local fast food joint. So, what more can I say? Go ahead, and go get a quality ice cream sundae. You won’t regret it.
Finally, here’s a shout out for Hersey’s Fudge. Get some on-line or in a grocery store and use this (instead of Hersey’s chocolate syrup) on your home concoctions.
Now I talked about playing with my dog, but I also get an equal amount of satisfaction while playing with my cats. They are hunters and nothing gets them more excited that playing “hunt that critter”.
The best toys are the feathers or snake on a string.
Cats love to play with those feathers.
I would dangle those feathers in the air and they would spend hours running, chasing, leaping and clawing at them. They would be so caught up in it and it’s a true joy to behold. Ah… good times.
A cup of fresh brewed coffee on a cold winter’s day
Now most Americans appreciate a nice cup of brewed coffee. We go to Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, McDonald’s or Duncan Donuts to get our fix. Of course, we also tend to brew it at home, whether it is in an old-fashioned percolator, a Chemex, or even (gasp) instant coffee.
But here, I want to talk about a different kind of coffee experience.
An “old fashioned” American diner.
Imagine it’s snowing out, and as cold as a witches tit out. You had spent maybe ten minutes trying to chop the ice off your windshield with the wind howled around you, and icy cold dust flakes of snow burned your skin. Your breath would exhale in white clouds that would frost up your eye glasses and turn your beard white. And finally, after shoveling away the snow you hop into the car, and turn the motor over (you had a oil-dipstick heater, after your reinstalled the battery)…
Gah! You can tell that I used to live in Northern Indiana, eh?
You start driving down the road. It’s around 5:30 in the morning and the sky is just beginning to become a dreary light grey.
Up ahead is a brightly lit diner. It’s one of those old-fashioned stainless steel sausage affairs. It looks something like a mobile home, but is all silver color with warm inviting windows all along the sides.
You pull in, while a truck with a snowplow on it’s front is busy cleaning out the parking lot.
You park, turn off the engine and get out of the car. A few steps later, you pull open the heavy stainless steel and glass door and you are inside this warm, inviting diner filled with the aroma of bacon, eggs and freshly brewing coffee.
Inside of a fine American style diner.
You go up to the counter.
There’s a guy (or a gal) there who immediately places some silverware on a napkin next to you once they wipe down the table. You, or course, reach over to the free newspapers down the counter to see what the daily news is, and when the waitress comes on over you place your order.
If you are like me, you would order “Country fried steak and eggs” with grits (or hash browns), wheat toast (why I never ordered rye?) and a coffee.
She would say “Just a moment, hon.” Then in short order, she would fill up a fine slam-on-the table white mug filled with fresh coffee…
A vintage heavy ivory white ironstone china coffee mug. This is what coffee was intended to be drunk out of.
You see, it’s not so much about the coffee as it is about the context… the environment… the feelings and the emotions that you have at that exact moment in time.
I know, I know…
Starbucks fans will argue that that they are just fine with the paper cup that they get from Starbucks. They believe that it is just as good, or maybe better….
I do not.
Please enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and share it at a moment that remains special to you.
A cup of coffee at a diner.
Thunderstorm at night
Who doesn’t enjoy a nice cozy stay inside during a thunderstorm? The light display, and the booming of the thunder is inspiring. Not to mention the crash of the rain as it beats upon the house, and the gusts of wind that howl and moan in the ptch black night.
It’s a great time to stay inside and cozy up with loved ones under a throw. Don’t you think?
Homemade Iced Tea
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania. There, we pretty much drank Hi-C, or Cool-Aide. My mother would go ahead and pour the granulated mix into pitcher and refrigerate it. Then, when I was in High School, the idea of making “fresh” lemonade or Iced Tea caught on. We would put this big tureen on the stove and cook up a batch of tasty refreshing beverage. Then allow it to cool down.
later, at the end of the day, we might sit on the large shady porch and drink it as the sun would set. Though in those days we called it “watching the street lights turn on”. It was nice, you know.
Of course, then in those days, we might also smoke a joint, a cigarette, or a bowl of something that was illegal at that time. We were pretty much told that it would give us brain damage, and one day we might get confused, and put a baby in the microwave, or try to jump out of the window in an attempt to fly.
It was in all the newspapers and magazines, don’t you know.
Back then, we would sit on a “glider” (which is a metal couch that sways back and forth) or in a “porch swing” which is a wooden bench seat that hung from the ceiling by chains.
Metal glider. This is a long forgotten masterpiece that is fun to sit in and wonderful for wide shady porches.
Of course, there would be a blanket or throw or some pillows on the glider. We never sat on the bare metal or wood slats. You know, looking back, many of my first dates were spent on the safety of the porch while the girls’ parents were in the kitchen or living room.
It is that moment that you treasure. The sun has set, the sky is turning into a dark blue color. The air is cooling down and a little breeze is kicking up. House lights are turning on, and the homes looked warm through their windows with yellow and orange colors on the bluish-white exteriors. The crickets come out, and the cicadas. You can even watch the bats fly about in the sky.
Later on in my life, I completely forgot about that.
Delicious Southern style Iced Tea.
I would go ahead and get this kind of iced tea in fast food restaurants. it would be filled with chemical preservatives, and unsweetened. No lemon. No orange. No mint. And I would be forced to drink this kind of camel piss on my way to and from work.
Then, when I moved to the South, I experienced what “real” iced tea is. It’s called “Southern Ice Tea”, and it’s awesome!
How to Make Perfect Southern Sweet Iced Tea
Iced tea is pretty much a year-round staple here in the south - probably mostly because it's so darned hot down here most all of the year. Besides, tea - unlike soft drinks - is loaded with benefits.
Just like seasoning recipes to taste, you definitely should adjust to your own sweetness level with sweetened iced tea. Some folks like it real sweet, some not quite so sweet and you can certainly exchange sugar for an appropriate sugar substitute, even making the tea completely unsweetened, and adding it per glass.
This recipe makes 2 quarts of sweet tea and I used to use a cup of sugar, but then I switched to making my tea completely unsweetened and using a sugar substitute by the glass, but then I stopped using artificial sweeteners completely, then I went back to them, or I flip flop between a stevia/sugar blend, monk fruit or agave - I've pretty much tried most all of them. When I went back to using regular granulated sugar, I found a cup to be too sweet for me. Eventually I reduced that cup of sugar to 3/4 cup, then 2/3 cup and now I find about 1/2 cup of sugar for the whole pitcher works pretty good for me. In restaurants I always find sweet tea generally far too sweet for me, so I order it "half and half" - half sweet, mixed with half unsweetened, and during the summer I go through so much tea that I now make a full gallon of a diet sweet tea.
Sweetening aside, one thing is for certain. I believe that the perfect iced tea starts with Luzianne brand. {affil link} Period.
Now... I don't say that because I'm trying to impress the folks at Luzianne (who have no idea who I am), or because I'm trying to make myself look more "Southern" by using Luzianne. I use it because, in my opinion, it is the tea for Southern iced tea - whether it's sugared up or made with sugar substitute. Not that other brands don't make a good pitcher of tea. Mama used Lipton and it's a perfectly fine tea. It's just that for what I consider to be the perfect Southern iced tea, I truly believe you need to use Luzianne.
Finding a restaurant, even in the Deep South, that served sweet tea was a challenge there for awhile. Restaurants jumped on the bandwagon of removing sugar from their tea and tried to pass off unsweetened tea to all of their patrons, offering sugar packets at the table. Well, everybody knows that just doesn't work. Warm tea is what you need to dissolve sugar and iced tea just needs to be cold. Not warm. Not at room temperature. But chilled cold and served over ice and for me, with lemon. So, thankfully, they have finally gotten back to offering sweet tea again, and unsweetened for those folks who prefer not to have the sugar. It's true, a lot of folks, myself included, sweeten with sugar substitutes these days, but still… every once in awhile, we all sure enjoy a glass of ice cold, sugared-up tea.
Tea Tips:
1. For perfect tea always start with fresh filtered cool water - never tap water!
2. Cloudiness is often caused by putting hot or still warm tea directly into a cold refrigerator. My method prevents this since you are pouring your steeped tea directly over ice cubes.
2. Bitterness in tea is caused by overcooking and burning the tea leaves - that is why it is important not to boil the teabags and not to steep them too long in boiling water. To counter, a pinch of baking soda - only about 1/8 of a teaspoon - can be added to the hot, steeped tea after you remove the bags. It will not affect the taste of your tea, and provides insurance against bitterness.
3. Use wooden spoons to squeeze your tea bags, a glass container - like a large Pyrex measuring cup - to steep your tea, and store it in a glass pitcher if at all possible. I break this rule myself at times though, especially with my Milo's copycat diet iced tea. And I do love my Tervis cups.
4. If you prefer your sweetened tea more on the sweet side, increase the sugar. Some folks like as much as 1-1/2 cups of sugar, but start lower and increase for the next pitcher.
5. Of course, substitute artificial sweetener by the pitcher or per glass if you don't want to use sugar. I use the granulated Splenda in the large bag, about 3/4ths cup is enough for me.
6. If you like lemon in your tea, try making ice cubes out of lemonade to use in the individual glasses. As they melt, they will infuse the tea with lemon flavor! {a tip from Susan of our Facebook Family!}
Ingredients:
5 to 7 individual tea bags, (Luzianne brand preferred){affil link}
1 quart of cool filtered or bottled water
Pinch of baking soda, optional
1 (4-cup) glass Pyrex measuring cup for steeping
2 quart glass pitcher filled with ice
1/2 to to 1 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
Fresh lemon, sliced or wedges, and some mint sprigs, optionalInstructions:
Boil one quart of cool filtered or bottled water, bringing to a full, rolling boil then turn off heat. Steep tea bags in the hot water for 9 minutes. Gently squeeze bags of excess water and remove. Whisk in sugar (and baking soda if using) until dissolved and set aside. Fill pitcher with ice, and carefully pour the hot tea concentrate over the ice. Stir well and pour over ice filled glasses, garnishing with a sprig of mint leaves and a nice juicy slice of lemon. Savor. Makes 2 quarts.
Cook's Notes:
For a milder tea, use 5 bags; for a more robust tea, go with 7. Increase sugar as needed to your sweetness level. Never pour hot tea directly into a glass pitcher without ice in it! To conserve your ice and use the tea per glass, fill the 1/2 gallon pitcher with 1-1/2 quarts of water instead of ice, and top with the steeped tea.
-Deep South Dish
Personally, I always use (a generous amount of) cut up orange slices, along with the lemon. And sometimes even a slice or two of lime or grapefruit to tarten up things a bit.
Sweet + tart = flavorful neutral.
I always use mint, but too much mint is not good and will act medicinally. Your heart will start to race. Yikes! So just use a sprig and no more.
Sweeteners can be sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, and honey. Experiment. You can end up with some very delicious cool Summer drinks for your end of the day porch rest periods.
Iced tea is just perfect for the end of the day rest periods while the wold quiets down. Some of the best Southern Iced Tea that I ever had came from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Nighttime walk in a snowstorm
You have not lived life until you have walked at night in a snowstorm. This is most especially true if it is in the countryside, on a wooded road, and you are alone with only the wind whistling through the trees and the cracking and gnawing of the branches as they sway in the wind.
Night time walk in the Winter snow storm.
When ever you have an opportunity, whether it is an old-fashioned sled ride, or sleigh ride, a walk, or a ski-mobile trip to the neighboring woods… please do it. Get gout and enjoy “Mother Nature”.
Conclusion
Make what you do matter. Take time to savor every moment. Do not try to be like the actors in the movies. Just try to be you; the best YOU that you can be. Do things your way. Live life your way.
Start doing it now.
Make your life matter. Do the little things that enhance your life. Appreciate them, savor them and enjoy them.
I do hope that you enjoyed this post. I have similar posts in my Happiness Index…
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